Since 2017, there has been no plausible basis to pretend that republican Supreme Court judges are impartial. All basis for that pretense is gone. GOP justices are politicians in black robes proclaiming radical right outcomes by whatever means works for them. Party loyalty and ideology trumps principle, reason and the public interest. Given that personal opinion, it is of some interest to try to gauge the situation from the point of view of how long a judge can affect the law and American society.
Propublica analyzed the situation, and it looks like this for the Supreme Court.
The situation is even more dire for federal appeals court judges, where Trump has also had a major impact.
"President Donald Trump says he considers one of his greatest accomplishments to be appointing a record number of federal judges. But the tally doesn’t tell the full story. Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court and appeals courts tend to be younger than appointees by presidents going back to Richard Nixon by about four years on average. As a result, because these are lifetime appointments, they’re poised to serve for decades to come, shaping American law and politics long after Trump leaves office. Of the current nine Supreme Court justices, Amy Coney Barrett, 48, just confirmed Monday, was the second-youngest when appointed."
It looks like Trump judges are going to be plaguing American society, democracy and the rule of law for a long time to come. Even if the president is not re-elected, it is hard to see how our democracy, which is under direct attack by the radical right, can survive mostly intact in view of this harsh reality.
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