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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   32892 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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Okay, so what would happen? Unfortunately, we don't actually have a draft bill on hand.

There's a bill from Whitehouse here; while it's unlikely to pass (albeit more because of the House than the Senate) , or even be attempted to pass before the election, it's got some interesting specifics.

  • (Non-original jurisdiction) cases are heard by the nine newest justices. Older justices don't retire, they just get 'senior' status, ie fade away and hear state-on-state cases.
  • Presidents get one nominee during the first 120 days at the first year of their Presidency, and a second in the third, unless there are already 18 justices total.
  • If a nominee is withdrawn or disapproved by the Senate, that 120 day counter restarts for a new one.
  • If there are less than 9 total justices, President gets to fill in new ones, regardless of the above.
  • This starts the Presidential term after the law goes in place. Lots of reasons to push it before Jan 20th.
  • Quorum is set, by statute, to 6.
  • ((There's some messiness with the office of the Chief Justice; that role only falls off when a current Chief Justice dies or resigns, even if they no longer are seeing most cases.))

If passed in the lame duck session before a Harris administration came in, Harris would have one nominee in 2025 (booting Thomas) and a second in 2027 (booting Roberts). Slower packing, but a Dem-appointed majority in three years. There's some efforts to counter the obvious counteractions -- a Republican Senate can't wait out a nominee -- but it's almost hilariously under-Black-Hatted in ways. A lot of those, there's a lot I'm not going to discuss publicly, but the trivial question of what happens with gaming recusal is the obvious and low-end side of the problem.

Thanks, this is helpful.

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