The Battle over a seat on the Bench: How Republicans and Democrats will dance on the Constitution for power

Henry Ashford
Staff Writer

In the Constitution, it is stated that “each [supreme court] justice has lifetime tenure, meaning they remain on the Court until they resign, retire, die, or are removed from office.” On Sept. 18, 2020, Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg died, leaving a vacant seat in the Supreme Court. The president has the power to appoint a judge to this position, and the Senate then confirms the appointee. With a Republican controlled White House and Senate, the Republicans can choose whomever they please without being stopped or slowed by Democrats. Many think that since Trump is so close to the possible end of his presidency, he should not be able to appoint a new judge. There are also many who oppose this and believe that he has the power to and should appoint a new judge. Trump has every right to appoint a Supreme Court Justice, but doing so would be morally wrong and goes against the fairness in government that our founding fathers tried to create.

Four years ago, during Obama’s administration, Justice Scalia died with 11 months left in Obama’s final term. Republicans went after Obama for trying to appoint a new justice, Merrick Garland, because Obama was so close to the end of his term. Obama ended his final term without appointing a new justice. Since Trump has been trying to appoint a new justice close to the end of his term, this event has been brought up by Democrats, pointing out the hypocrisy of the Republican party. While Republicans were totally allowed to do this, it is now affecting Trump. Now Republicans want to pass through a justice in one month, despite their opposition to four years ago. The republicans are turning a blind eye to their hypocrisy so they can assume more power. But they are not the only guilty party.

The Constitution, while it covers a lot of parts of the government in detail, does have one loophole that is relevant in this situation. In the first 2020 Presidential debate, Joe Biden was questioned about “packing the court.” Packing the court is appointing more than nine justices. While Joe Biden refused to comment on this issue, many Democrats have stated that they will pack the court if Trump appoints a justice. While this may seem unfair, there is nothing in the constitution prohibiting it. Once again, just because it is allowed does not mean it is morally correct. If Democrats control the White House and the Senate, they could assume total control over the courts. Not only would this be bad for Republicans, but it would be bad for everyone. It would result in countless justices being added to the bench with no defined number to stop. The number of seats on the bench should stay the same, disrupting precedent will only hurt our country more than it is now. We do not need both Republicans and Democrats tampering with precedent.

Our country is in a divided state, two halves of our country separated over who they will vote for. In this state, we do not need politicians stirring the pot. We cannot allow the people who run this country to ruin the framework our government was based on. We need to vote in politicians who will uphold the Constitution. We need politicians whose first concern is to serve the people, not try and gain as much power as possible. It is evident that both sides will go to far lengths to get more influence within the government, and we as the people should see this and do something about it. We have slowly changed from the United States of America to the Republican and Democratic States of America.