If the Court loses a liberal like Ginsburg, I’d still love to see Trump nominate Merrick Garland as her replacement - with the threat. If Democrats oppose him, Trump withdraws the nomination and nominates a real conservative. Remember the Dems kept telling us what a moderate Garland is and how this was the best Republicans could hope for. But would he be the best Democrats could hope for from Trump?
I think the Dems would be so loaded for bear that a block of them would try to reject Garland in favor of somebody more extreme. Then Trump lowers the boom with the additional talking point that he TRIED to be fair with the Democrats but they would not go along so now he has no choice but to nominate the person he really wants.
This move puts the Democrats deeper on the edge as the Extremist Party while blunting forever the “Garland deserves a hearing, GOP stole the nomination, blah blah” talk.
Even if they accept Garland and approve him, you’ve got a more moderate judge than Ginsburg who has a chance to be drawn over as a swing vote on cases plus and Garland is already in his 60s where he’s unlikely to last more then 20 years on the High Court.
“If the Court loses a liberal like Ginsburg, I’d still love to see Trump nominate Merrick Garland as her replacement”
No. Trump told us the list who he would nominate from. Why surrender? The Democrats wouldn’t do this if the roles were reversed. The only reason Obama nominated Garland is it was within 7 months of an election and Garland is no moderate.
One of Obama’s nominees replaced Souter. So let’s replace Souter with a conservative judge getting this seat back. Kennedy replaced Bork as nominee. If Kennedy leaves let’s get our Bork.
Er, why? When you are winning, you don't extend the "game". We need a restored Court. Solid conservative Constitutionalist justices. No games. Garland is smack-dab in the middle of the liberal pack, which is all clustered at the extreme liberal end of the spectrum. We elected Trump almost entirely on his promise to appoint conservative justices. That's where we need to be.
I like the thinking behind your suggestion, but I doubt that President Trump would nominate Garland, and frankly I hope he doesn’t. I’m on the side of having him nominating a hard core conservative.