Thread by @dcpetterson

There's a simple way to remove Trump's fascist SCOTUS appointees. We should plan to do this in January of 2021.

We could impeach them, but that takes a 2/3 vote in the Senate.

There's a much easier way.

1/6

First, understand: Congress sets the number of Justices on the Supreme Court by federal law. The number of SCOTUS Justices has varied from five to ten. Nine isn't a magic number.

An odd number of Justices is preferred (it avoids tie votes), but not it's not required.

2/6

After we take back the presidency and the House and Senate, we should lower the number of Justices from nine to seven. The two most recently-appointed Justices (appointed under the Fascist Trump) should be required to retire.

3/6

Maybe there would be some provision in the new law allowing the Justices forced into retirement to listen to cases, and to contribute thoughts and file friend-of-the-court briefs, but they should not be allowed a vote.

Or just deep-six them. I don't care either way.

4/6

Since this is a simple change to federal law, all it requires is a simple majority vote in both chambers, and the signature of the President. The law could be filibustered, but McConnell has given ample precedent to disallow filibusters, particularly on SCOTUS questions.

5/6

Lowering the number of Justices--rather than raising it to, say, eleven and appointing two more--avoids messy appointment battles, and requires only one (1) bill.

Write or call your Representative and Senators. Tell them to #ShrinkTheCourt in 2021.

6/6

There's GOP precedent to shrink the Court, even for nakedly partisan reasons:

1) GOPers allowed only 8 Justices for over a year to deny an appointment to Pres Obama.

2) Oct 2016, Cruz suggested leaving the number at 8 permanently, if Hillary was elected.
politico.com/story/2016/10/…

This was despite the current federal law, in place since the 1860s, that REQUIRES nine Justices on the Court.

That is the law we'd want to change in 2021, and simply lower the number in that law from nine to seven.

(BTW, McConnell broke federal law by keeping the number at 8.)