Can Bush appoint Supreme Court Justices during his term?

4

45automan

New member
Hi guys Mario Cuomo said last night that Bush would never get approval for anyone he should try to appoint to the SC as a justice. He said because of the way they handeled the election,meaning Bush and Co. Is this BS or what? Was he just blowing steam? Whats the deal on Bush being able to appoint justices during his term? Please forgive my ignorance here.
45automan
 
It is said that Rehnquist (76 yrs old) and O'Connor (70) would like to retire, but wanted a Republican president to appoint their successors. SC Justices are appointed by the president with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. With Cheney as pres. pro tempore of the Senate, the repubs still have a one (tiebreaker) vote majority.

I would think, if there are no defecting republican senators, that the appointments would go through.
 
Please don’t apologize for asking any question, 45automan, as Will Rogers said, "Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." I’ve also heard that the only stupid questions are those that go unasked. :)

If a SC justice would decide to retire/resign, Bush would appoint someone to be their replacement. This person’s appointment, however, must be confirmed by the Senate. I think that Cuomo is suggesting that Bush will never get a majority to approve any choice for Supreme Court Justice. I also think that Cuomo is just spewing some sour grapes since he won’t have any say in the matter.

I heard on NPR, last night, that the number of justices on the SC is not fixed at nine and could be 7 or 11 or 15 or whatever. Don't know if this is true or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
 
I heard on NPR, last night, that the number of justices on the SC is not fixed at nine and could be 7 or 11 or 15 or whatever. Don't know if this is true or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
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True, and this is a major loophole in our Constitution. A President with a cooperative Senate could pack the court with as many justices as he pleased. In fact, FDR threatened to do exactly that to get his New Deal programs approved.
 
Cuomo is probably hinting that he should be appointed to the Supreme Court. He probably would be of Gore had won. Cuomo's political career has been over for a long time.
 
Cuomo's son is out of a job with the transition, and Cuomo still hasn't recovered from the drum beating he took at the hands of George Pataki. He's definitely spewing sour grapes.

Has everyone written to our new President Elect to ask him to suspend the S&W agreement?

Speaking of Andrew (?) Cuomo, he was one of the people interviewed on I think ABC last night. He sounded slightly less than happy.
 
The look on Dan Rather's face, just after Gore's concession, made my wife think Rather was going to cry!
(Insert Happy-Dog Dance here! :D )
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I also wonder how Bush will appoint "conservative" people to the SCOTUS with the Congress we'll soon have. Too many of the Republicans seem to vote like Democrats.
 
Matt,

Remember, though, that the court packing scheme that FDR wanted to try backfired SERIOUSLY on him.

He took a LOT of political damage for that maneuver, which was seen as an attempted end-run around the authority of the court.

Many officials in his own party came out in strong opposition to the plan, making it clear that Roosevelt would never be able to increase the number of justices on the court.

He eventually got his way in his second and third terms when many of the justices who opposed him began to retire. At that time the justices had an average age slightly less than God,I think. :)
 
I believe Cuomo was issuing a threat that the Senate wouldn't approve Bush's appointees unless he puts leftists, a la Souter, on the court. Someone quick look up what sort of majority is needed to confirm a SC nominee. I usually carry a copy of the Constitution but don't have it today.

Actually Cuomo has been so hysterical lately that I find him sort of funny, he rants about how Bush doesn't have any mandate so he'd better stick to enacting Democratic programs. You have to give him some credit for chutzpah at least.
 
I'm not an expert, but I believe that the Democrats could prevent a vote. It takes sixty votes to shut everyone up and get down to voting. You will see some really hardball moves in the next two years.
 
Let the Democrats play REAL hardball, which quite a few liberals have been screaming for.

If they block up Congress for two years, it will make the mid-term elections REALLY ugly, but if it works out as some have been predicting, I think the Republicans can make serious gains in two years and regain comfortable majorities.

What Republicans have to guard against, though, is the absolute fiasco that happened when they seized the House and Senate in 1994.

That was an INCREDIBLE opportunity that was stupidly wasted by by Newt Gingrich's ham-fisted control of the House.

He served as a rallying cry for Democrats in the 1996 Presidential election, and quite frankly Republican Congressional candidates still haven't recovered fully from it.
 
Bush should nominate the most conservative judge he can find for the SC. It the senate Borks him, nominate someone even more conservative....

Eventually, he may have to nominate the judge who was caught cleaning his gun at the bench while hearing a trial.
 
Dennis you thought Rather was about to start bawling, you should have seen Jennings! Talk about your biases,these people didn't even try to hide it the other night. It was actually kind of funny to see them falling all over themselves with praise for Al Gores concession speach. By the way, anybody notice at the begining when Gore was just walking up to the podium he had a grin on his face that would make it look as if he was to say how grateful he was to have won the presidency , the grin on his face was that big!!!
 
Mario Cuomo and his son are both stink-suckers. Cuomo turned New York State government into a Ponzi-scheme. We are still suffering. Job growth in the nation is slowest in New York and even slower in the backwater of Western New York, legacies of Democratic patronage politics. He is not qualified to discourse on anything except how to trade Other People's Money for patronage. He was all set to get paid for sitting on his a@@ and pontificating liberal horsefeathers to the masses...and now, nothing.

Personally, I hope GWB is able to appoint one justice per year. But probably he will get two, total. Look out for more socialistic whining and Big Lies in the confirmation hearings to come.
 
Gary H,

He should appoint a Hispanic Conservative and let the Democrats spin.

Rumors are that Bush is going to do just that! I don't think that the Dems could get away with pulling a Clarence Thomas on him or her. Clarence Thomas, being a conservative, didn't have the backing of the black community. A Hispanic nominee, no matter how conservative, will have the backing of fellow Hispanics. We have a good chance of turning a lot of Latinos into Republicans. They have similar beliefs and support traditional family values like most Republicans do. I hate to say it, but I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel for the blacks. They have been lied to and have been on the Democratic plantation for too long.


Joe
 
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