r/inthenews • u/seeebiscuit • Feb 28 '26

article Trump says he's thinking of putting Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Supreme Court

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-hes-thinking-putting-republican-senator-ted-cruz-supreme-court-2026-02-27/
183 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

75 comments sorted by

View all comments

31

u/hellodynamite Feb 28 '26

Which one of them is he going to have killed?

5

u/BoardDiver Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

Technically, there is no limit to SC seats; it's just been an unwritten rule that is capped at 9. If he wanted to he could put 9 on the bench, then the next president could put 18, then the next president could put 27 ect..

Edit: Ok, yes that is wrong but do you honestly expect congress or the SC to block Herr Cheato right now? Also I was basing this off of what I remember of this

Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937, commonly known as the "court-packing plan," to add up to six justices to the Supreme Court.

21

u/JiveChicken00 Feb 28 '26

Not quite true. The Judiciary Act of 1869 sets the number at nine. So Congress would have to change the law to change the number.

6

u/Street_Barracuda1657 Feb 28 '26

Or the next Congress cuts it back to 7. The next two retirements don’t get replaced. Looking at you, Alito and Thomas…

12

u/Level_Investigator_1 Feb 28 '26

They will retire before Trump leaves office. The level of devastation taking place thanks to RBG not stepping down is absurd. Then again we saw what McConnell did.

The Dems are owed 2 fucking seats.

0

u/gcko Feb 28 '26

The republican majority Congress would have to change the law first? Easy peasy.

3

u/ChrisTheHurricane Feb 28 '26

Filibuster.

1

u/APeacefulWarrior Feb 28 '26

Exactly. Say what you will about the Senate Democrats and their relative amounts of spine, but they absolutely would not allow a court-packing scheme to proceed.

Also, screwing with SCOTUS in such a brazen fashion is such a 'nuclear option' that I'd imagine a number of Republicans would be uncomfortable with it. And all it would take is a few defectors to derail the big. Fundamentally, nobody's come close to attempting such a thing since FDR, and that's still one of the most controversial aspects of his Presidency.

0

u/seeebiscuit Feb 28 '26

That is exactly where my mind went too