For the sake of argument, suppose you are a sitting Conservative SC Justice:

[PCIntern]

Up until now you lead a quiet life: you can go to parties, dinners, stores, drive your car, give speeches here and there, enjoy your career as few people in the history of the Nation can and have...

And then this shithead gets elevated to your ranks: you can't go anywhere without people sneering at you, demonstrating at events, yelling things, being lumped in with this alcoholic sexual predator, having your motives questioned at every turn, being accused of protecting him from outside "abuse",being tarred with the same brush, your opinions compared with those of a KNOWN political hack and your work diminished in the annals of legal history and precedent.

So maybe you let it be known that this is unacceptable.

What do you think, Mr. Chief Justice Roberts? This OK with you?

[calimary]

1. MAN this is a good point, PCIntern!

Life would change overnight. Clarence Thomas would probably have to go into hiding to avoid having HIS bullshit confirmation and HIS underwhelming performance on the Supreme Court ever since dug back up and brought out of mothballs and rehashed.

[libdem4life]

2. Especially Clarence Thomas.

Talk about being dragged out for all past 40 to remember...right up there with the "blue dress", which now seems rather tame.

[secondwind]

4. Clarence wants to retire next year.

We have to go through this crap all over again.

[libdem4life]

6. Just adds impetus to get rid of DJT.

IDC how. Hopefully Thomas can wait until 2020, if need be. DJT truly does seem to be mentally declining rather quickly. Each lost battle hits him hard.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Seriously? He's not all that old.

Maybe it's because since Scalia died he feels like he actually has to ask a question now and then during oral argument?

[dameatball]

10. If Dems can somehow take the Senate, Thomas retiring would be a good thing.

Use Mitch's Merrick Garland strategy.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I have been wondering how the other justices might react if K joins them.

I'm quite certain that they will not interfere with or comment on the confirmation process in any way because they understand the importance of the separation of powers doctrine. If he does join them they will be respectful toward him, at least, because the court can't function at all unless there's a reasonable level of collegiality and cooperation. However, I do wonder how Chief Justice Roberts will deal with the situation because he's the head of a court that will go down in history as "the Roberts Court." He is conservative but not to the point of lunacy and he is known to encourage a collegial approach to the court's work. He also has control over who gets assigned to write opinions and other administrative functions (like recusals). What can he or will he do to try to keep "his" court's reputation out of the mud?

[ProudLib72]

5. I found a clip of RBG and Sotomayor dealing with K

This is how things play out in my mind.

[brush]

9. Damn, those dogs clothes-lined that baby. That's not even legal in football anymore.

Would be nice to see the aforementioned justices do that to Kavenaugh though.

[brush]

8. Good post. With Thomas there has always been the "affirmative action" asterisk over his head...

(Oh, he's the black guy, standards for SCOTUS were lowered for him, and he never says anything anyway and he's the only one so he's ignored), but with Kavanaugh there will be a huge "white male privilege/accused attempted rapist" asterisk over his head and since he won't be the only white male on the court, it won't be possible to ignore the pall that will descend over SCOTUS's reputation.