The US Supreme Court is the highest court in the nation and is composed of nine Justices — a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. When there is a vacancy, the President nominates/appoints a candidate, the Senate conducts hearings, and the Senate then confirms or denies the appointment.
Technically, the Constitution authorizes the President to appoint a justice subject to the advise and consent of the Senate.
Likewise, the President appoints the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who is called the Chief Justice of the United States.
Whilst Donald J Trump was President, he nominated three Supreme Court Justices all of whom were confirmed by the Senate after bruising, ugly, partisan hearings that were a gross public spectacle and at least two of them included massive perjury.
President Trump appointed one third of the current Supreme Court. Some Presidents, like Jimmy Carter, never had a single Supreme Court nomination opportunity as there were no vacancies.
It is also fair to point out President George W Bush appointed three Associate Justices during his 8 years in office.
The Supreme Court is composed of the following Justices:
Chief Justice Jon G Roberts, Jr. (68, Harvard) since 9-29-2005, nominated by President George W Bush
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (75, Yale) since 10-23-1991, appointed by President George W Bush
Associate Justice Samuel A Alito, Jr. (73, Yale) since 1-31-2006 appointed by President George W Bush
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor (69, Yale) since 8-8-2009 appointed by President Barack Obama
Associate Justice Elena Kagan (63, Harvard) since 8-7-2010 appointed by President Barack Obama
Associate Justice Neil M Gorsuch (55, Columbia) since 4-10-2017 appointed by President Trump
Associate Justice Brett M Kavanaugh (58, Yale) since 10-6-2018 appointed by President Trump
Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett since (51, Notre Dame) 10-27-2020 appointed by President Trump
Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (52, Harvard) since 6-30-2022 appointed by President Biden
In general, Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are considered to be conservatives or more traditional Constitutional literalists whilst Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson are considered progressive.
Ideologically observers consider this court to be a 6-3 conservative majority and it is composed of entirely Ivy League law school grads except for one.
There are several reasons why the current makeup of the court ended up as it did.
1. At the tail end of the Obama admin when there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court, President Obama nominated Judge Merritt Garland to fill that vacancy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to conduct hearings arguing that the next President should have that appointment authority.
This was a pure political power play that worked out as Donald J Trump was elected President.
2. Before Trump received the Republican nomination to run for POTUS, he had already solicited input and created a list of potential conservative judicial appointments. He worked from that list.
One man, Leonard Leo, from the Federalist Society had gigantic influence in developing that list.
In the end, Trump would nominate 33% of the current Supreme Court and 30% of the judiciary. Huge impact.
3. Trump appointed conservative judges and stood by them during the bruising Senate confirmation hearings. On this score, it is impossible not to give the man high marks. He was steady as a rock and when the Kavanaugh hearings descended into the bowels of Hell, Trump stood by his man.
3. It is also worth noting that the Trump nominees were fairly young persons — 55, 58, 51 — and will have an impact on the Supreme Court for a long time.
The Dems will now get serious about expanding and packing the court. The composition of the Supreme Court is not stipulated in the Constitution; it is dictated by a Congressional law.
Expect the Dems to try to expand the court whilst Joe Biden is President so he can appoint a number of progressive Associate Justices.
Count on it. I doubt it will work.
The impact is enormous.
Roe v Wade — overturned
Affirmative Action — ended
Biden’s student loan vote buying giveaway — unconstitutional
These are just the BIG cases. There is much more.
When the affirmative action case decision was announced, President Biden immediately condemned the court saying they were not a “normal” court and “had gotten the ruling wrong.”
There is some great irony when a bottom of the barrel, admitted plagiarist grad of Syracuse Law criticizes the cream of the crop Ivy League educated, seasoned justices sitting on the Supreme Court as to the basis of their ruling.
The composition of the Supreme Court and their subsequent decisions will be the most noted long term legacy of the Donald J Trump presidency.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car!
