GOP Senate ready for lame duck Supreme Court confirmation if Alito or Thomas change mind

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans are open to holding a lame duck Supreme Court confirmation if Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas change their mind about not retiring after the midterm blue tsunami.“It can be done,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told Punchbowl News.“You’re talking about basically 60 days post-election in the lame duck.”“I certainly wouldn’t rule that out.”Republicans find themselves in a situation eerily similar to Democrats in 2014, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 81, a progressive darling, stayed on the Supreme Court after Republicans swept the Senate by stronger margins than expected.She died six years later, allowing President Trump to appoint her successor, paving the way for a big conservative majority on the high court, which allowed it to overturn Roe v.

Wade in 2022.Thomas, 78, and Alito, 76, are similarly revered among many conservatives.But both have told allies they will not step down early.

“[They] have both been very clear that they don’t intend to retire this term.I don’t expect that decision to change,” one Supreme Court insider told The Post.

Many key Republicans, such as retiring Sen.Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), have all signaled support for rushing through a nominee if needed.

There hasn’t been a Supreme Court retirement during a lame-duck session after a midterm election since 1922, when Mahlon Pitney stepped down, data from the Congressional Research Service show.Given the size of the Democrats’ victories in Senate races, Republicans could be locked out of power in the upper chamber into at least the 2030s.“I wish they would have retired in the spring,” one GOP Senate advisor told The Post.

“[The] country will face the consequences of them not retiring in the spring for many years.”But pressuring Alito or Thomas to change course would likely be futile, according to that source.Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown (...