Post by mhbruin on Feb 29, 2024 10:46:36 GMT -8
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear former President Donald Trump’s immunity case in late April—postponing for several months his Washington, D.C., criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election—had a “motive” behind it, MSNBC host Joy Reid said Wednesday: to allow the court’s elderly conservative justices the ability to retire under a Trump administration.
On The Reid Out, the namesake host asked New York University law professor Melissa Murray what she thought about potential motivations for the high court’s move.
While Murray stopped short of going as far as Reid, she said that the Supreme Court “is on the ballot in this election” due to the ages of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“It is worth flagging here that the Supreme Court, even if it doesn’t want to be in this election, is on the ballot in this election, because Justice Thomas and Justice Alito are in their seventies. If a Republican is elected, they will resign and be replaced by a Republican justice—by Republicans who are teenagers, and we will have this conservative super-majority for the next two generations,” Murray said. “So I don’t know if those are motives or considerations, but I think it has to be a factor here.”
Thomas is 75, and Alito will turn 74 a few weeks before the court hears arguments in Trump’s immunity case. Nominees of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively, they are the two oldest justices on the bench.
Justices Alito and Thomas Have ‘Motive’ to Delay Trump Case
On The Reid Out, the namesake host asked New York University law professor Melissa Murray what she thought about potential motivations for the high court’s move.
While Murray stopped short of going as far as Reid, she said that the Supreme Court “is on the ballot in this election” due to the ages of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
“It is worth flagging here that the Supreme Court, even if it doesn’t want to be in this election, is on the ballot in this election, because Justice Thomas and Justice Alito are in their seventies. If a Republican is elected, they will resign and be replaced by a Republican justice—by Republicans who are teenagers, and we will have this conservative super-majority for the next two generations,” Murray said. “So I don’t know if those are motives or considerations, but I think it has to be a factor here.”
Thomas is 75, and Alito will turn 74 a few weeks before the court hears arguments in Trump’s immunity case. Nominees of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, respectively, they are the two oldest justices on the bench.
Justices Alito and Thomas Have ‘Motive’ to Delay Trump Case