Donald Trump reshaped the Supreme Court in his first term.
Trump could face this situation again in his second term.
And one Supreme Court justice’s retirement decision will change everything for Donald Trump.
As Liberal Hack Watch reports:
Donald Trump created a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Trump got three bites at the confirmation apple because left-wing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to step down when Barack Obama was president and Democrats controlled the Senate after she got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Ginsburg passed away in September 2020 allowing Trump to put Amy Coney Barrett on the bench.
Barrett provided the deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The two oldest justices currently on the high court are conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Many conservatives want Alito and Thomas to retire now – even though they are the two most reliable votes on the Court – because Donald Trump and the GOP Senate majority are only guaranteed a two-year window to replace them with younger conservatives who guarantee a right-leaning majority into the 2050s.
Republicans could lose the Senate in the 2026 midterms, meaning Democrats would block any Trump Supreme Court appointments in 2027 and 2028.
Democrats could also win the presidency in 2028, which means that a potential President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could replace Alito and Thomas, flipping the Court to a 5-4 left-wing majority.
Such a Court would repeal the Second Amendment, allow government censorship of online speech, and strike down laws that ban transgender surgeries for children, among other things.
But will Justices Alito and Thomas actually retire?
The early answer suggests no.
The Wall Street Journal reported that a source close to Alito says he had no plans at the moment to retire.
“Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,” the source close to Alito told the Journal. “The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is.”
The Journal reported that these sources were “tamping down speculation among legal activists that the 74-year-old jurist was readying to retire so that President-elect Donald Trump could fill his seat with a younger conservative.”
Justice Thomas also made it clear in the past that he thinks a lifetime appointment means a lifetime appointment.
In a 2019 interview with Pepperdine University President-elect James A. Gash, Thomas rejected any speculation he would step down from the bench voluntarily.
“I’m not — What retirement?” Thomas declared. “I’m not retiring.”
“20 years?” Gash wondered.
“No,” Thomas shot back.
“30 years?” Gash inquired.
“No,” Thomas flatly stated.
It remains to be seen if Alito and Thomas intend to follow through with the intent to stick on the bench if they eventually fear they will be replaced with radical leftists.