Who you got for SCOUTUS

[Benton]

(07-10-2018, 11:15 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I feel forced to say this, did anyone expect him to pick a liberal candidate?  I certainly agree that the way Garland was handled was underhanded.  If you look at it from an ideological perspective replacing Scalia with Gorsuch merely kept the current balance in the SCOTUS.  Now replacing Kennedy with Kavanaugh will certainly move the court to the right, but was anyone expecting Trump to nominate a liberal justice? 


Let's, for arguments sake, say Garland was confirmed and Hillary won the presidency.  She'd be nominating a left leaning justice and shifting the court to the left.  In that scenario everyone kvetching right now would be ecstatic and vice versa.  The court was bound to shift in an ideological direction at some point.  What concerns me is all this talk now of packing the court FDR style.  Dangerous ground if you ask me.

Honestly, I don't think it will shift much. Kavanaugh is slightly further right than Kennedy, but I think it will be semantics. Reportedly, Kennedy lobbied fairly hard for Kavanaugh, which — if true — would lead one to think they have pretty similar ideologies. 

Of course, it could all be misdirection. Kavanaugh is likely to have one of the hardest times getting confirmed. There's plenty of ammo to tie things up. Which could work well heading into the elections. "Vote for the establishment otherwise we'll never get this corporate shill on the court."