re: #92 Winston_Smith

Thomas would be a wash.

Wrong.

Any GOP replacement of Thomas with another extremist on the bench tilts the court for another 30-40 years.

You can’t just look at the current court makeup, but the long term trend. Justices are staying on the bench longer, and their impact is felt long after they’re confirmed to the bench.

So, while 5-4 may be the way of decisions, you’ll have a solid 5-4 block for years until RBG retires, and if the GOP is still holding sway, then you’ll get 6-3 decisions rolling back still more rights. Or the court will simply decline to pick up cases at all that it might otherwise choose to do (rule of 4).

There’s a lot more than just what is happening in the moment.