Will Donald Trump be successful in stacking the Courts to rule in his favor?

[kentuck]

He seems to think so? He believes he owns the Supreme Court.

He believes they are as partisan as everyone else in his political world. In the end, they will make their decisions on what is best for Donald Trump and the Republicans. Do you agree with that?

Or will the majority of judges follow the Constitution, since they have lifetime appointments? We like to think our Judicial system will be more independent than the US Senate.

But, will they?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. The thing about judges who have been appointed for life is that

they don't owe anything, politically, to the president who appointed them - as a number of presidents have discovered, to their surprise and dismay. The Trump appointees are conservative, of course, having been chosen for Trump by the Federalist Society. But their conservatism doesn't necessarily mean blind allegiance to Trump, because this is not necessary for them. They get to keep their jobs no matter what. The conservative justices can be relied on to interpret the Constitution as favoring corporations over individuals, the wealthy over the poor, and in criminal cases the state over the accused. But their conservatism will also incline them to follow precedent, and they are also very likely to uphold the doctrine of separation of powers. I think if it comes to that they will follow United States v. Nixon.

What I am wondering is what might happen if the Supreme Court rules against Trump in an important case, such as whether the DoJ has to give up the unredacted Mueller report, or whether the IRS has to turn over Trump's taxes. What if Trump refuses to comply with an order of the Supreme Court? How can the court enforce its order? Then we'd have a no-shit constitutional crisis.

[greymattermom]

2. Trump doesn't have the only copy of any of these documents.

The court can demand a copy from someone else who has it. At least, I think so.

[Greybnk48]

3. I believe he does own the Supreme Court.

There are two total mediocre judges on the Supreme Court who would never in a million years be there if it weren't for Trump and the Trump Party. They owe him "bigly."

[kentuck]

4. I think he can rely on Kavanaugh more than Gorsuch.

I think he will be deeply disappointed by "his" Supreme Court.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. He doesn't own them and they don't owe him. They've been appointed for life, so they can

do whatever they want because he can't retaliate against them if they don't - unlike political appointees and members of Congress. I'm anticipating the great entertainment that will occur someday when that happens (and it will), when Trump has a hissy fit and threatens to fire the justices (which he can't do, of course) and rages on Twitter about how ungrateful they were.

[zackymilly]

6. The longer he stays in, the more stacking he can do. He has to be voted out in 2020.

[Brainfodder]

7. I doubt this hiding the smoking gun nonsense will survive 2019.

Too many people know and someone could blow this up rather easily with a leak or two.

That it hasn't happened already: