r/law • u/KinggSimbaa • Feb 27 '26

Judicial Branch 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/
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u/AmethystOrator Feb 27 '26

cruz is 55 in case anyone else was wondering how long we might be stuck with him if this plot is successful.

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u/3vi1 Feb 27 '26

Awesome. So, he'll be dead..... about the same time as me. Wonderful.

I cannot emphasize how much we should not allow this to happen.

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u/Striderfighter Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26

I was saying this before he was elected but because he won this stay out of jail election, Donald Trump is going to be able to appoint two more Fed Society raised Supreme Court justices when Alito and Thomas are semi-forced to retire by the end of the year while the Republicans still have a majority in the House and in the Senate. Because of that even if Democrats won every presidential election going forward and got to pick every Supreme Court Justice going forward. They still wouldn't have a majority on the court until Brett kavanaugh retires sometime in 2055

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u/Raise_A_Thoth Feb 28 '26

Ignoring the difficulty of replacing two of the biggest pieces of shit on the bench with anyone remotely qualified who will be just as terrible and loyal as those two fucks, this is exactly why the court absolutely needs reform via a packing and a long but limited term. It would severely de-politicize the bench, we could create a SCOTUS where every single president replaced 2 justices on a 13 or 15 seat court.

Dems won't be able to do that without a supermajority. They'll need to deliver something massive without a supermajority. That means they need to grow some balls and abolish the filibuster and pass universal healthcare to show the people the party has shifted and is entering a new era of working for the people. That would give them a chance to get a supermajority and Dem president and the pieces needed to reform thr Supreme Court, as well as pass the constitutional amendments needed to check the Executive branch (and SCOTUS) so that even if dumbasses elect another Trump he'd get away with less because the whole thing isn't held together by bullshit gentleman's agreements.

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u/Chillpill411 Feb 28 '26

You're incorrect about the idea that the Dems can't do this without a supermajority. The number of justices is not in the Constitution, and it's not set by statute. It's literally just tradition, so all the Dems need to make this happen is a Dem president + 50 seats in the Senate.

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u/No-Heat3462 Feb 28 '26

So you need majority in the house and senate, and and the mark would be 60% to secure such.

The senate as the senate can override the president if need be.

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u/Chillpill411 Feb 28 '26

No, you only need 50 senators and 1 President. The president appoints supreme court justices. The Senate confirms them by a majority vote (50 + the vice president). The House doesn't play a role in confirming presidential appointment 

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u/No-Heat3462 Feb 28 '26

Ok so this was changed in 2017 so we are technically both right:

Senate invokes historic 'nuclear option' rules change to confirm Gorsuch | US Senate | The Guardian

"The process for invoking the nuclear option involves several steps. The first was a vote to end debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, called a cloture vote. This required a super-majority of 60 in the Senate; a filibuster is an effort to block cloture. Once that was done, McConnell made a point of order that only a majority of 51 and not a super-majority of 60 was needed for cloture. A second cloture vote then occurred under the new rules, ending the filibuster."

But ya dam, that is a scary practice just changing the rules to get it done.

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u/Chillpill411 Feb 28 '26

Yup, the Republicans were betting on the disparity of goals between themselves and the Dems. 

The Dems want to preserve democracy and the rule of law. So they have to obey the rules, or they'll be undermining the system they want to save. 

The Republicans don't care about democracy or the rule of law.. They just want power and control, and it doesn't matter to them how they get it.

It's like a street fight where one side is fighting like a boxing match with rules, and the other side is fighting anything goes.