President Obama Really Has Transformed the Judicial Branch...

[Frodo]

...even if Merrick Garland isn't ultimately confirmed -or renominated by a President-elect Hillary Clinton:

Did Obama win the judicial wars?
Liberals say he shied away from too many battles and ran into GOP roadblocks. But the result is still a transformation of U.S. courts.

By Michael Grunwald
08/08/16 05:25 AM EDT

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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/obama-courts-judicial-legacy-226741#ixzz4GmUpgn00

[Antonio the Sixth]

Beautiful. Thanks, Obama!

[jamestroll]

Republicans shall not stall on the Garland nomination, for their own good. It is becoming more and more obvious that Hillary Clinton will win, and Republicans could well lose the Senate.

Hillary Clinton could well nominate someone well to the left of Garland. The conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot here.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Republicans shall not stall on the Garland nomination, for their own good. It is becoming more and more obvious that Hillary Clinton will win, and Republicans could well lose the Senate.

Hillary Clinton could well nominate someone well to the left of Garland. The conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot here.

They already shot themselves in the foot. Just as Trump cannot halt the campaign he began to increase his Q score, when much to everyone's surprise, especially his, he got the nomination, those who came out against holding a vote on Garland are stuck with their choice until after the election.

[IceSpear]

Republicans shall not stall on the Garland nomination, for their own good. It is becoming more and more obvious that Hillary Clinton will win, and Republicans could well lose the Senate.

Hillary Clinton could well nominate someone well to the left of Garland. The conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot here.

I hope Obama withdraws Garland if Hillary wins and Dems take the Senate. The GOP would richly deserve it.

[jamestroll]

Republicans shall not stall on the Garland nomination, for their own good. It is becoming more and more obvious that Hillary Clinton will win, and Republicans could well lose the Senate.

Hillary Clinton could well nominate someone well to the left of Garland. The conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot here.

I hope Obama withdraws Garland if Hillary wins and Dems take the Senate. The GOP would richly deserve it.

I hope not! But yes you are right, the Republicans would deserve it. Given the amount of Supreme Court vacancies in the next term; I do suspect that Hillary will nominate one justice of the Republicans choice in exchange for them not filibustering legislation. For better or worse that is.

[Gass3268]

I look forward to Hillary and Democratic Senate expanding on Obama's good work for 2 years.

[Virginiá]

I hope not! But yes you are right, the Republicans would deserve it. Given the amount of Supreme Court vacancies in the next term; I do suspect that Hillary will nominate one justice of the Republicans choice in exchange for them not filibustering legislation. For better or worse that is.

I really doubt that will happen. Putting aside the backlash from the left/other parts of the party, if Republicans hold the House, then Hillary will know that filibusters are mostly irrelevant for big priorities as they will not get past the Ryan and/or the rest of the crazies. If Democrats did manage to take back everything, then why would Republicans just agree to give Democrats whatever they want legislation-wise for just 1 justice, when the odds are Democrats will still get a 5-4 liberal majority once Kennedy retires/passes away? Plus, such a deal will surely result in dissenting Republicans that break rank, who have their own agendas. Cruz for example.

There are just too many issues with such a deal. It might be useful to Democrats in specific scenarios, but none of said scenarios are all that plausible right now.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, nominating a progressive justice (ie someone who isn't a pro-government hack on criminal issues like Garland, and possibly one who's a lot more vocal about overturning Citizens United) and getting her/him confirmed is one of the few good things Hillary could actually do in office. There's not much to hope in terms of actual legislation.

[Orser67]

The quote below about filibuster reform (or whatever you want to call it) was really interesting to me. It makes me think that Democrats will end the judicial filibuster after the Garland nomination, assuming Democrats win the Senate.

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[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The GOP was holding open the SCRT seat in hopes of a conservative winning the WH. But, the obstruction turned off swing voters, in irony of what happened in 2014 when there was gridlock as well.  Obama after Merrick is seated will have transformed it.

[TDAS04]

Good.