will W make a 'lame duck' Sup Crt apptm to replace Rehnquist???

[bobbieinok]

sometimes Savage has a point.....he said why is it coming out today that Rehnquist has cancer?? will W make a lame duck appointment??

I got the impression Savage was talking about W losing the election but appointing a replacement before Kerry's inauguration....could also be: congress is not in session now and W has made appointtments at such times before

Supreme Court IS different from district federal courts, however

[Gman]

1. He can but

its got to get through the Senate and they still need 60+ votes to confirm. Good luck, W.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Surely someone around here knows the rules...

Any SCOTUS scholars wanna tackle this one?

[demosincebirth]

11. He can make supreme court appointments...

if a supreme court judge resigns, dies, or becomes incapacitated, only when congress is not in session.

[onenote]

3. i researched this a million years ago

when I was still in law school. Basically, the constitution allows recess appointments and, it has been used in the past to appoint supreme court justices (I believe Potter Stewart, Brennan, and Warren were all recess appointees). However, (ironically) the legality of using the recess appointment power to name justices to the Supreme Court has never been resolved by the Supreme Court (ironically).

I don't think the power has ever been used by a lame duck president, however, and the political uproar would be great. Moreover, there are a couple of limitations. A recess appointee can only serve until the end of the next session of Congress...its not a lifetime appointment, unless confirmed in the interim. Also, there are limitations on the circumstances in which a recess appointee can be paid.

The biggest limitation on a lame duck appointment would be that the recess appointment would expire upon the nomination and confirmation of a replacement. So if Bush named a new justice to replace Rehnquist, and JK is elected, JK could name a replacement and if confirmed by the Senate, Bush's replacement would have to step down. Given that Bush's appointment only can serve for a couple of years unless confirmed (and given that JK won't submit that nomination to be confirmed), the GOP would be shooting itself in the foot if it sat on JK's nomination. The whole situation would be coming to a head around the time of the 2006 elections.

The one scenario that I could foresee is Bush naming Clarence Thomas as the first black Chief Justice. There would still only be 8 justices, so JK would get to fill a vacancy. But he would have to oppose Thomas' elevation. Might be the kind of thing the repugs would try.

onenote

[immoderate]

5. To the end of the NEXT session?

Or this (current) session?

--IMM

[onenote]

7. the next session

i.e., the 1st session of the 109th Congress (i.e. end of 2005).

[DieboldMustDie]

6. Kerry could defuse the situation by appointing another African American...

judge to fill the spot. :shrug:

[mountainvue]

8. President Johnson tried unsuccessfully

to appoint as a lame duck president.

[onenote]

12. but not a recess appointment

Johnson tried, as a lame duck, to promote Abe Fortas from associate justice to chief justice (filling Warren's spot). Thornberry would then have filled Fortas's spot. The whole plan tanked when the Senate wouldn't confirm Fortas.

onenote

[Democat]

14. How would they be shooting themselves in the foot?

They would get their own right wing Supreme Court justice for two years, who they would try to use to fuck Kerry over and screw the American people.

The Republicans would see it as a major victory to hold on to the court for another two years, rather than having Kerry appoint someone to that position.

It's a win-win for them. What is the downside? They don't believe in public backlashes and we haven't really seen one other than maybe during the Clinton impeachment. However, not too long after the impeachment Bush took over the White House and the Republicans control every branch of government, so that isn't much of a backlash at all.

[GOPNotForMe]

15. Brennan's appointment was legit

And simply the result of Eisenhower doing a really shitty job of "vetting" the candidate as they say. (They do say that, right?)

[whistle]

4. He will most certainly try and call a special session of congress....

...to approve. My sense is he will appoint Scalia, because Cheney will tell him to.

[sendero]

9. Does it really matter?

Could he appoint anyone more right-wing than Rehnquist?

[belle]

10. a) probably, and b) ideally it'd be good to replace Rehn w/someone better

[Democat]

13. What about Ken Starr? He could appoint a full right wing employee

The only reason you might think it can't get worse is because we haven't seen what Bush has planned for the future.

It can always get worse as long as Bush is in the White House.