Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Will Trump get to appoint another Supreme Court justice Alito confirms he's considering retirement

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Will Trump get to appoint another Supreme Court justice Alito confirms he's considering retirement · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Today kicks off a new term for the Supreme Court
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and new comments from one of the oldest justices brings
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the possibility that Donald Trump could have another seat to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: fill before his term is up. Justice Samuel Alito confirming
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: he is considering retirement next year. In an excerpt from
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a CBS interview airing today, Alito was pressed on the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: timing of his possible exit.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: So you'll be kind of reconsidering this probably every year,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: rethinking it.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I have to.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Why does that not risk undoing all the work that
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: you have done here at the court, like what happened
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: with Justice Ginsburg?
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I think it's too hard to predict. It's too hard
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: to predict how, for anybody, and particularly when you reach
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: a certain age, what your situation will be a year
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: from now, two years from now, and so forth. And
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: it's too hard to predict what the political situation will be.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Democrats hope they'll win a Senate majority in November, providing
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a check on Trump's nominees for his remaining two years
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in office. Let's bring in MSNL legal analyst and former U.S.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: attorney Joyce Vance. Jason Johnson and Mariana Sotomayor are still
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: with us. Joyce, I promised our audience day one that
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: we would focus on the stakes on your sub stack.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: You were doing just that. You mentioned your, quote, list
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of dreads that SCOTUS could decide on this term on
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the agenda. Elections, guns, LGBTQ rights, immigration. What could be
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the most consequential case they're hearing?
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: You know, all of the above, right? I mean, the
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: problem is the Supreme Court has a rich panoply of
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: opportunity to undo important American rights this term. But I
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: think for those of us who believe that we're a
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: country that's always trying to be better than what we've
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: been in the past, it's the immigration cases that stand
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: out and the ability of the United States, for instance,
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to deport people to third party countries that they have
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: no ties to. even when those are countries like South
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: Sudan that are war-torn and dangerous. If the Supreme Court
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: signs off on that, it'll be difficult for Americans to
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: appreciate who we've become as a country.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Jason, do you think there's an opportunity to make this
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a midterm issue?
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 5: And I think engaged voters in Michigan, in North Carolina,
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: in Texas, this is the sort of thing they have
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: to care about because, hey, the Supreme Court is now
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: a key issue. It's something that for 10 years sort
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: of elite political people have been trying to make a
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: part of campaign conversation. But after the end of Roe
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: versus Wade in 2022, I think everybody pays attention. But
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: there's two things about this, Alicia, that are really important. One,
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: I have to say this just professionally. That was a
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: horrible question that was asked of him to sort of
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: ask Alito, well, don't you worry about all the work
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: that you've done being undone? Oh, you mean the work
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: of snatching away rights and snatching away things that you
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: would establish as precedent for the last 50 years because
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: you want to serve your political masters? His legacy is
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: going to be terrible on the court because of the
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: kinds of things that he did. This is not the
• 3:08
  Speaker 5: kind of question that you should be asking someone We're
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: supposed to be adjudicating in an objective manner. But here's
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: the other thing that's important. For him to say over
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: the course of this interview, well, I'm concerned that the
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: court's being intimidated in court expansion. It's essentially like a
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: burglar in your house saying, hey, I'm sick and tired
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: of all these conversations about burglar alarms. What's going on?
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: The American people have decided that only 46 percent of
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: us even trust this court. So court reform is absolutely essential,
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: either expanding the court or increasing the number of ethics
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: that guardrails that we have so we don't see the
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: kind of outlandish behavior we've seen for the last eight years,
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: both in the selection of people to be on the
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: court and in their actual adjudication and behavior.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Well, to that point, you have been working the phones,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: talking with Democrats on Capitol Hill. Is there an appetite
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to make this a signature part of the next year?
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: There absolutely is.
• 3:55
  Speaker 6: And I would even go further. A number of them
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: are saying that this should be a litmus test for
• 3:59
  Speaker 6: twenty twenty eight Democrats. And what the conversation is around
• 4:02
  Speaker 6: is the fact that voters are so upset with all
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: facets of government. That corruption argument is incredibly strong and
• 4:09
  Speaker 6: applies to the Supreme Court. So the interesting part of
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: this debate is now even centrist Democrats, the ones who
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: have usually tried to not wade into this debate saying
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: we shouldn't talk about expanding the court, are now having
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: the conversation of how do we embrace this issue? They're
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: still not going to embrace the expanding the court, but
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: they are saying they need to put forth some kind
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: of ethical code for the Supreme Court. And also putting
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: term limits and the conversation that one think tank third way,
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: they are the ones who a lot of those centrist
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: Democrats really look up to and really are reading what
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: they're saying is there should be an 18 year term
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: limit that way. every president, regardless of party, can at
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: least choose two new Supreme Court justices by a certain
• 4:53
  Speaker 6: point in time. And that could maybe help keep it
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: a little bit more equal. Again, that is preliminary conversations,
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: but this is just part of the package.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Just the fact that they're talking about it.
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: Exactly.
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  Speaker 6: The corruption argument is absolutely going to be one that
• 5:07
  Speaker 6: Democrats want to put on themselves, right? Regulate themselves, but
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: also Supreme Court and also the presidency. So this will
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: be part of that conversation moving forward.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Joyce, Alito also sat down with Fox News. Here's some
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of that interview. It aired Sunday morning.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: There has been a concerted effort to intimidate the court
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: and justices on the court to try to influence us
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  Speaker 3: to decide cases differently from the way in which we
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: have been deciding them. And I am concerned about the
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: future of the court. I think it's an important institution.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: It has not always done the right thing. But I
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: think on the whole, it has been fundamental in protecting
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: our constitutional structure and the rights that all Americans enjoy.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: A concerted effort to intimidate the court. There are lots
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of ways to interpret that, Joyce, whether that concerted effort
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: is coming from the president of the United States or
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: vigilantes who send pizza boxes to people's homes. What did
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you make of that?
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I think we all know how Justice Alito
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: interprets those comments. And he's certainly not talking about the
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: president of the United States. He's long had the view
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: that the court in many ways is under siege. And
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I think that speaks more to the ivory tower that
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: he lives in than the reality of American citizens who
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: are deeply concerned with both the court's decisions and and
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: with its procedure. And so they are speaking up, exercising
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: their First Amendment rights to talk about the court. I
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: think it's really disturbing that a justice perceives that as
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: being threatening. But to the point of the conversation that
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: you were just having about Supreme Court reform, increasingly the
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: issue is less one of whether there should be reform
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: and more a discussion about what that reform is going
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: to look like. And it will be essential that it
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: be accomplished in a way that's not perceived as political.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: Because Sam Alito and I agree on one thing, and
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: that's the importance of the court. as one of the
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: central institutions in American democracy. And if we cannot find
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: a way to come together as Americans and restore our
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: confidence in the court, then we really are in a
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: dangerous place because we submit our most difficult disputes to
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: the court, issues that we simply cannot resolve short of
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: action by the nine or however many justices we end
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: up with resolving those issues for us. And so this
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: issue of court reform, yes, it's a political one, but
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: it's more fundamentally an American one.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Joyce Vance, I appreciate that you are already living in
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the future. Thank you so much for being here.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Dr.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Jason Johnson, as always. Mariana Sotomayor, thank you both.
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: Hey, it's Rachel.
• 7:52
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• 7:53
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• 7:55
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• 8:07
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• 8:10
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• 8:17
  Speaker 4: Thanks.