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Long Games and Long Shots
Democrats introduce term limits for Supreme Court
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s published memoir has a strategic title: The Long Game. Last month, a Fox News contributor bragged about how well Mitch McConnell played the long game to create a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
McConnell’s long game began after the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.
President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the Chief Justice of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, to replace Scalia. McConnell insisted that the next president, with the mandate of the voters, should fill the vacant Supreme Court seat, not the outgoing president whose party lost the House and Senate during his two terms in office.
At least, that’s what McConnell told the public.
His long game was predicated on a political forecast that suggested the same red wave that won the Republicans the house in 2010 and the Senate in 2014 would win the Republicans the White House. McConnell successfully blocked Obama’s attempt to replace Scalia, and the Republicans won the presidency.
McConnell’s long game worked out better than he anticipated.
The Republican president ended up filling not one but three vacancies on the Supreme…