Generational Makeup of the Supreme Court

[David Horn]

(04-13-2022, 04:12 PM)sbarrera Wrote:

(04-13-2022, 03:27 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Generational change doesn't mean much in politics. Only Party, and ideological shifts. Brown-Jackson's appointment does not change the Supreme Court's ideological makeup.

Interesting though, the complaint against FDR's Court when he threatened to pack it was that the justices were too old. Now the complaint you are making against Biden's Court, as threats to pack it are made again, is that the justices are too young.

The same problem applies, regardless. The conservative majority is stuck in the past. The "legal precedents" that may be overturned are liberal ones, which are oriented toward justice and solutions for the future. The new trend, already under way for a number of years, will be not just to keep the law as it is, but to reverse it and bring it back to the past when it favored the rich, the powerful and the prejudiced.

I think the generational change does make a difference. The Silents leaving and Gen X becoming nearly half the court - all of which happened over just the past 5 years - means that long-standing precedents are going to be upended.

I agree with both posters.  No, the Xers are not go-along-to-get-along Silents, and that's certainly a difference in demeanor that's only amplified by their typical imprinting as Reaganites.  The real question that needs asking: how does this get resolved?  The most obvious options are a hardening of the rightward leaning court into a truly reactionary one (see the late 19th century court as a prime example), or a case of court packing (no precedents for this, really).  It's impossible to fathom which might occur, because we are on a political knife-edge, and how we fall will tell the tale.

The current thinking: a strong recession begins just prior to the 2024 election and/or the court overturns Roe v Wade.  I suspect the correct guess is both happen -- Roe first.  Puzzle-out how that plays.  I think the pocketbook issue will outweigh the end of legal abortion, but the women will be the deciders on that.  We know how the majority of the men will fall.