This week marks the first week at the job for newly installed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
And while many folks are upset that our country’s highest court now includes an accused sexual assaulter who lied under oath to the Senate, in a recent Savage Love podcast, longtime sex advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage said that Kavanaugh’s appointment might actually have an upside: It gives Democrats the opportunity to impeach him if they win back the House and Senate.
But while that sounds great, even he admits that it’s a long shot. Here’s how that would work:
1. New Bush-era revelations when Kavanaugh worked as a political hack
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During the hearings, Republicans prevented the release of literally hundreds of thousands of documents detailing Kavanaugh’s work as an associate counsel and staff secretary under anti-gay former U.S. President George W. Bush. It’s likely those documents will continue to leak out and go public in the weeks ahead, revealing unsavory details about his past work as a GOP propagandist, the furthest thing from a job requiring fair and unbiased thinking.
2. Sexual assault and impeachment
If the Democrats take back the U.S. House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections, congressional Democrats could use the sexual assault allegations, Kavanaugh’s Senate perjury and any dirt in his Bush-era documents to impeach him. All it would take is a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate.
Here’s the rub: It seems increasingly unlikely that Democrats will be able to re-take the Senate. And even if they do, it’s nearly impossible that Democrats will win enough seats in the Senate to command the 67 votes needed to impeach him. But if they find enough damning evidence against Kavanaugh in a more thorough investigation of his alleged sexual assaults (rather than the cursory) FBI investigation in which Kavanaugh, his key accuser, and other witnesses weren’t even questioned) and the Bush documents reveal grievous misdeed, Dems could engineer a public campaign to shame Senate Republicans into voting to impeach him.
But even this too is unlikely. The only U.S. Supreme Court judge ever to be impeached was Samuel Chase in the early 1800s, and even he wasn’t removed from the bench (because while the House impeached him, the Senate acquitted him). Also, Republicans see Kavanaugh as their hope of maintaining a conservative court majority and rolling back LGBTQ rights, abortion, immigration, voting, environmental issues and more. So they’re likely to back their golden boy, no matter how dirty he gets or how blue the Senate becomes.
3. Court-packing
While this is a bummer, all hope isn’t lost. Some progressives — hopeful of a 2020 blue sweep of the Senate, House, and presidency — have floated the idea of expanding the size of the court to more than its current 11 Justices in an attempt to water-down its conservative-bent. Of course, this could lead to a back and forth, with each party expanding or contracting the court to suit their ideological needs rather than justice. Another more conservative idea is to impose term limits on Supreme Court Justices, turning their lifelong reigns into shorter terms.
Either way, it seems like we’re stuck with Kavanaugh for now. But if progressive Dems ever regain power, they at least have some options available to keep him from wrecking the court for the next few decades.
4. Kavanaugh could chill out and become moderate
During his Senate sexual assault hearing, Kavanaugh railed about how the accusations against him were the result “revenge on behalf of the Clintons.” This claim and his past rulings make him seem pretty far-right on the ideological spectrum.
But it’s entirely possible that Kavanaugh could catch the fairness bug and end up making some progressive rulings anyway. For example, John Roberts, the Justice seated by George W. Bush, ended up being a key vote in the 2012 that upheld key parts of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Similarly, recently retired Justice Anthony Kennedy — seated by Ronald Reagan (who himself was no friend to the gays) — ended up being a good key vote on issues involving same-sex marriage and gay rights. So while many of us are expecting the worst with Kavanaugh, he could end up surprising us. Here’s hoping.
Mozo83
Judge Fratboy is there for life, sadly. None of those things are going to happen.
The best we could hope for is a Conservative Supreme Cout Justice outing that ends in a fiery bus crash.
And I hope for that daily.
jakejacob
Last part is our only hope.
Josh447
There are currently nine justices not eleven.
It would seem Kavanaugh probably is there for good however who knows maybe a tornado Michael will take them all out.
muscl954
Currently there are nine justices, but the suggestion is to expand the court to eleven justices.
Josh447
Just a thought. Could you Queerty add edit to your comments section?
Scout
I agree. An edit function would allow for afterthought modifications.
tjack47
I’ve read the alternative nominee would’ve been worse. Still, I was hoping it could be delayed until after the election. What they did with Merrick Garland was unacceptable, and I felt it could’ve been avoided somehow. Too late now.
Kieran
Was this article written by a 12 year old?
Rock-N-RollHS
Um, Dems and the left could stop with the PR campaigning and start getting their hands dirty with grassroots politicking. Get people to vote, stop with the emphasis on identity politics, and build socio-economic and environmental coalitions that unite and don’t divide. Then work to change the system through fixing redistricting and redressing judicial appointments from the top to the bottom. Dems lost this one. Now move on and stop whining. Ginsberg is likely next to go. Get moving, biatches.
JessPH
It’s Chief Justice Robert who would most likely move to the center. Not rapist Kavanaugh.
Terrycloth
@ Josh447. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. Deaf ears…after you’ve sent your comment if theres any errors it’s to late to fix…they’ve redesigned this app and added some new features cant make a simple edit button ??
MacAdvisor
I am for court packing. First, making the court smaller is not so easy. Once the justices are appointed, they can’t be removed except by impeachment. Thus, to shrink the court, Congress has to let them die off to meet the new, lower target size. That can take decades. For one party to maintain power long enough to allow the shrinking to take effect would be tough.
Second, let’s not make a wimpy increase of 2. Let’s seal this deal and go for 15. That would add six new proper justices. Shrinking the court back to a conservative majority would take decades. Plus, given the size of the new court, the justices would have to share offices.
Scout
The problem with increasing the number of justices from the current 9 would significantly slow down the court, and with the number of important cases pending, do we really need to wait years for a case to be heard and decided because more justices would need to weigh in and analyze?