That is true. Barrett will pledge to uphold the Constitution and liberals will rhee, knowing that abortion isn't really a constitutional right, and in a few years, an abortion case will be heard by the Court.
It's hard to say how that will affect the election. Personally, I feel as though the Progressives will simply walk away from the political process. In larger numbers than they already have after Biden was selected. It would cement the failure of the Neo-Liberals and indeed, of the entire political system. They came to believe that not only were these things their God-Given-Rights, but they were also led to believe that the Republicans were the Imperial Remnant of the USA; a small, dying group that somehow managed to retain power through trickery. 2016 put that into doubt and 2020 might just put it to bed.
I think some legislators are thinking ahead though. Kennedy and his other allies are probably looking at it long term. They know that in the short term, they can't do anything. In the medium term, they might try to impeach a judge, shame a judge out of his seat, or otherwise persuade one to retire early and thereby balance the courts. IF they win the election. Which means if they want a good chance of winning that, they need Biden to pull of a strong performance in the upcoming debate. They'll have him on all sorts of drugs, but it's obvious those don't always work. They're rolling the dice.
If they win the White House in 2020 and the Senate, they'll try and pass this legislation. I don't know if they can, but even if they were to lose the House, they might try and hold onto the legislation or keep it from being booted out of the Senate long enough for the Democrats to take charge. At least then they might get it passed. If they hold both House and Senate, then they can try and pass it back and forth until they get something they like more.
The real hope by some, I think, is to get this through before Barrett can take her seat. That way it takes effect first. And to the Republicans it may not seem like a bad deal, but I think the Dems are thinking of this in two ways. The first is that they're trying to cut Barrett's term early. She's 48. Ginsburg died at 87. Barrett, with advancing medical technologies, could hold her seat for 40 years. And more to the point, they would know when she would leave office; 2038. Which means they could turn her retirement into a campaign issue in 18 years.
That may not sound like much, but keep in mind that this would apply to every (assuming they keep it that way) new judge that is nominated to the court. Right now, judges can somewhat mitigate politics by stepping down at a time of their choosing. Or they can just suddenly drop dead. It's too hard for a political entity to predict. But if they KNOW that a judge will leave office in 18 years,
they can plan for it in 2038. And maybe 2040. And 2042.
This is why I don't want them to be forced to retire in 18 years of appointment; it would only serve to drag them further into the political sphere and worse, it would make it a predictable formula in the future.
But I don't think they can really do anything else. There are no short-term solutions to dragging the court back. The medium-term solution requires they win the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. And that's a tall order. One that they can't be sure to pull off with a candidate as feeble as Biden. And even those solutions would be a massive escalation; packing the courts and trying to ram through statehood for US territories. Or splitting a State like California to ensure dominance in the Senate. And those things could actually cause a Civil War, so I don't think the Liberals will take them up on it. And of course, the Liberals are already looking for alternatives to the Progressives. Those RINOs going on the DNC convention wasn't just for show. That's shifting political allegiances.
So the only real constructive thing to do right now is to try and limit the powers of the Court. That way they can predict when a Justice is leaving the bench, they can reduce the damage of Republican victory (both current and future), and hopefully blunt the pain of having all their past century of legislation from the bench wiped out in two years.
