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Comment by kelnos | Hacker News Reader

How would it be an amazing feat? Trump already has a list of candidates, and all it takes is 50 Senators to say yes (plus Pence breaking a tie if they somehow don't get 51). There's no requirement to allow any but the most perfunctory of floor debates, and the filibuster has been eliminated for SCOTUS justices.

Guaranteed McConnell will ram this through with plenty of time to spare.

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He could have it done by Wednesday if he wants. Just pick the youngest and most ideological from the Federalist society's list and give them an up/down vote and the President can sign off in no time.

Trump's campaign has been blasting SCOTUS picks to their email list for weeks. From the latest one:

  > Did you hear the news? President Trump has released his shortlist for candidates for the Supreme Court. Here is a sneak preview of a few of the names on the list:
  > Senator Tom Cotton
  > Senator Josh Hawley
  > Senator Ted Cruz
  > And more…

Wow Hawley and Cotton have risen meteorically. I would have half-expected Hawley's crypto-unionist populism to have kept him off such a list, but he'd surely be better than the others mentioned. Somehow, he ran for MO Attorney General without promising to further brutalize minorities. Within two years he was in the Senate and now within two more years he would be on the Supreme Court? Wow.

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