It appears that the Supreme Court will become more conservative in its decisions this year.  The article also discusses apparent disharmony between the future.

The Republican theft of a Supreme Court seat that should have been filled by Obama is going to set off a chain reaction of bad consequences.  I am not just talking about a more conservative court.  Let’s also recall that Republican-appointed justices have been in the majority for over 40 years.

At some point, there will be payback.   If, for example, Trump tries to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the latter part of his term, Democrats could vote against it using the same logic Republicans did in 2016 – wait for the next election.  I would support that.

Also remember that if Clinton had won, congressional Republicans may not have let her fill the seat left by Scalia’s death.

Thanks to McConnell’s unwillingness to give the Garland nomination even a hearing, there will never be votes on justices that are not mostly along party lines.  It’s been trending that way with Gorsuch as an extreme example.

Here are examples of prior votes (For-Against):

Scalia:  98-0

Kennedy: 97-0

Ginsburg: 96-3

Ginsburg was the last (probably last ever) to get 90 votes.

More recent ones:

Alito: 58-42

Sotomayor: 68-31

Kagan: 63-37

Gorsuch: 54-45

If Trump makes other appointments, he has made it clear they will be very conservative.  When Democrats get a chance to pick, I expect the response to be a very liberal justice.  Trump has polarized the country and the Democratic party has become more liberal in response to his terrible behavior and policies.

In the future, say 30 years from now, I expect all justices will be extreme conservatives or extreme liberals and most decisions will be made on party lines.  That’s not ideal but you have McConnell to thank for it.  Sad!

Update:  Trump’s tweet this morning shows how he thinks only of party lines not the law.  The Supreme Court does not belong to either political party.  Their loyalty should be to the Constitution.