Of course he can go up there. The two Justices he appointed will meet him at the door. Maybe a couple of others will come too. They’ll get photographed by the official White House photographer. It’ll be an “historical event,” another wall broken down by the “fundamental change” President.
Many of the Justices will decline to talk to him. They’ll be represented as “having already made up their minds” and “unwilling to compromise” and “not open to a reasoned discussion of the case.”
There will be a strong correlation between the Justices that won’t meet with Obama and the Justices that vote against his health care plan. This will be represented in terms of partisanship.
The end result will be that the makeup of the Supreme Court will become a campaign issue that will mostly help Obama, especially since Romney would probably draw his nominees to the Court from the same list Obama uses. In the (extremely unlikely) event that Romney beats Obama.
Well put Tom.