This is probably obvious, but one byproduct of the 100% party-polarized Senate on SCOTUS confirmations is that it removes incentives on both sides to nominate moderates. Merrick Garland may be the last moderate SCOTUS nominee we see for a long time -- of either party.
And this also creates an incentive for the ambitious lawyers and lower court judges quietly seeking promotion to be more ideological, too: Like a politician in a safe district, they're going to worry more about being primaried than losing the general.
(And to be clear, I'm being descriptive here, not normative: Just flagging what the ambitious types will have an incentive to do, not what I want them to do.)
