Trump could end up replacing 3, even 4 Supreme Court justices in his first term
- President Donald Trump reportedly thinks he can remake nearly half of the nation's highest court in his image with four separate appointments.
- Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush only did two over eight years in office.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 84, and Trump reportedly speculated that Sonya Sotomayor could be forced into early retirement due to diabetes
- Sotomayor has said that she has the situation under control.
- If Trump replaced a liberal justice with a conservative, he could deal a blow lasting decades to the Democrats' hold on the court.
President Donald Trump reportedly thinks he can remake nearly half of the nation's highest court in his image by making four separate appointments during his first term - and so far, he's already half right.
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, but then-President Barack Obama's moderate nominee was shut out until after the presidential election.
Trump quickly filled the vacancy with Neil Gorsuch, a conservative who has already played a key role in a very consequential Supreme court term.
On Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that he will retire on July 31. Trump is already looking for a replacement.
Trump now stands to secure two justices in the first half of his first term. Obama and former President George W. Bush both appointed two justices during their eight years in office.
Supreme Court Justices, who serve for life after a presidential appointment and Senate confirmation, represent one of the longer-lasting marks a president can leave on the country, as the justices often serve for decades.
But Trump reportedly thinks he can get an additional two justices in.
In October 15 2017, Trump reportedly predicted in private that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonya Sotomayor could both retire during his term.
"What does she weigh? 60 pounds?" Trump reportedly asked of 84-year-old Ginsburg, a source told Axios. The same report says Trump said Sotomayor, over twenty years younger than Ginsburg was also in trouble due to "her health."
"No good. Diabetes," Trump reportedly said of Sotomayor.
Sotomayor had a health scare in January with paramedics treating her for low blood sugar, but she quickly returned to work. Sotomayor says she's vigilant about her condition.
During the campaign, Trump often said he or his opponent, Hillary Clinton, could end up appointing five justices.
Democrats stand to lose it all
So far, Trump has only had the chance to replace conservative judges, and will likely do so with other conservative picks.
Ginsburg and Sotomayor are liberal judges, so replacing them with a conservative would be especially damaging to the Democrats' hold on the court.
The court now leans with a slight majority towards conservatives, but Kennedy, whom Trump is set to replace, served as a kind of moderating force, supporting same-sex marriage and upholding a woman's right to abortion.
Activists fear that Kennedy's replacement could undo those cases, and that further Trump appointees could reshape the court for decades to come.
"The future of our democracy is at stake," Nancy Pelosi, Democratic minority leader in the House said of replacing Kennedy.
"We're looking at a destruction of the Constitution of the United States," if Trump gets to appoint another conservative to the Supreme Court, Kamala Harris, a Democratic Senator from California said on MSNBC.
Supreme Court nominees need a simple majority in the Senate to win. For the Democrats, this makes their bid to take back the Senate in 2018 all the more vital.