Ivanka Trump went to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to convince him to retire and give her father the seat for a conservative justice. It was not the first time she had done so. This was part of a 17-month campaign that succeeded. But Democrats were stunned. Justice Kennedy was a strong buffer against overturning Roe v. Wade, according to The New York Times.
Trump nominated three of Kennedy’s former clerks to top judicial posts. The ex-president also worked on his relationship with Kennedy’s son Justin, who not-so-coincidentally worked at Deutsche Bank “as the global head of real-estate capital markets.” It was the last bank willing to take his loans.
Then, first daughter Ivanka took him to lunch and brought her daughter Arabella Kushner to hear him at the Supreme Court. The charm offensive worked. Justice Kennedy stepped down. Another woman in politics has weighed in on another Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer, but directly rather than manipulatively.
The incredible RBG aka Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was just a few months off in her timing. She said that as long as she could do the job, she would. The nation was heading down the race track toward the line where Donald Trump would be finished. But then she died. The incredible RBG aka Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was just a few months off in her timing. She said that as long as she could do the job, she would. The nation was heading down the race track toward the line where Donald Trump would be finished. But then she died.
With just days left before the 2020 presidential election, that was when it became abundantly clear that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would break his own rule and rapid-fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat with ultra-conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
McConnell stole President Barack Obama’s justice and handed his own party SCOTUS Niel Gorsuch. He said that a president could not put a judge in the year before a presidential election. He lied. He played hardball. Democrats must be every bit as tough, and they can still be ethical.
Representative Alexandria Ortega Cortez (AOC) (D-NY) appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with co-host Dana Bash on Sunday after weighing in on Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement. Bash asked, according to CNN:
‘So, just to be clear, you do think that Justice Stephen Breyer should retire at the end of this term?’
Ocasio-Cortez responded:
‘I — it’s something I would think about, but I would probably lean towards yes. But, yes, you’re asking me this question, so I would just — I would give more thought to it, but I’m inclined to say yes.’
CNN‘s Ariane de Vogue, Manu Raju and Phil Mattingly noted in May:
‘Senior Democrats are treading carefully around Justice Stephen Breyer these days, worried that a progressive push to get him to retire could either anger him or come off as overtly political — in either case potentially dashing their hopes of getting a young new liberal on the Supreme Court in his place …’
‘ … But Breyer — at age 82 the senior liberal on the Supreme Court — is keen on keeping the high court free of political influence. And at a moment when a Democratic president gets to nominate any new justice, and Democrats hold the Senate’s tie-breaking vote on confirmation, an open campaign to squeeze him out could have the opposite of the intended effect.’
So why the rush? Liberals continued to fear that Breyer would retire at a time when the White House was held by a Republican. Typically, in the midterms after a presidential election, the House and the Senate flip against the president. If that happened, Democrats would find themselves on the short end of a 7-2 Supreme Court.
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