Republicans rammed through Supreme Court nominees. Now Democrats will
have the votes to stop them
[November 07, 2026]
By SEUNG MIN KIM, MARY CLARE JALONICK and LINDSAY
WHITEHURST
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump led a transformation of the
Supreme Court that ushered in a conservative supermajority but soon he
will confront an emboldened Democratic-led Senate that is preparing to
play hardball on his judicial nominations.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is likely to return as
majority leader next year, promised in an interview with The Associated
Press that Democrats will prevent the Republican president from
installing a “right-winger” on the Supreme Court and that they are “not
going to allow any crappy nominees” elsewhere in the federal judiciary
or in Trump's Cabinet.
Democrats will hold at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate next year
and as many as 56 depending on final results in Mississippi and Alaska,
giving them a significant majority to block Trump's nominees or just
ignore them outright.
After years of being on the losing end of highly partisan confirmation
fights against Republicans, especially on Supreme Court nominees,
Democrats will be under considerable pressure to wield the same type of
aggressive tactics.
This all but erases any prospect that Trump could add to his imprint on
the court he established in his first term by naming three of the
current justices. In the past, Trump had mused privately that he could
end up nominating up to seven people for the nine-person bench by the
end of his second term, according to a person with knowledge of those
comments.
Schumer declined to say specifically whether he would hold any Supreme
Court vacancy open until after the next presidential election, as former
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell did in 2016, clearing the way
for Trump to nominate the first of his three Supreme Court picks.
“The bottom line is, we’re not going to allow a right-winger on the
court,” Schumer said.
The White House said Thursday that “extreme Democrats have a history of
politicizing the Supreme Court, even entertaining plans to pack the
Court with liberal justices.”
“President Trump will never let them pack the Supreme Court and ruin the
independent judiciary," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
Neither of the court’s two oldest justices, Samuel Alito, 76, or
Clarence Thomas, 78, has publicly indicated an imminent retirement.
Lifetime appointments typically come with a remove from political
upheaval, even of the scale of Tuesday’s elections in which Democrats
regained control of both the House and the Senate.
“I think the justices must know that if they were to retire now, at this
moment, right before Democrats take the Senate, there would be an
enormous amount of pressure unlike any we’ve seen to make serious change
to the court,” said Dale Carpenter, a law professor at Southern
Methodist University’s law school.
Alito has publicly mused about retirement in recent months, telling The
Associated Press that he’s not sure “how long I’ll be able to continue
to do this job.” But he’s also said he’ll stay on the court through the
end of the term next summer and told Bloomberg he would not step down
during a lame-duck period.
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Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks at the Center for American
Progress (CAP) post election forum, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Meanwhile, Thomas is closing in on a record-setting tenure and would
become the longest-serving justice in the nation’s history if he
served until May 2028.
Trump has shown unusual deference to Alito and Thomas, even as he’s
attacked other justices who’ve ruled against him, praising both for
their legal acumen and declining to say whether they should step
down so the president could nominate their successors.
In a Fox News Channel interview in April, Trump said he has a
shortlist of potential nominees but said he did not know whether he
would have another vacancy this year, citing Alito’s “very good
physical health.”
The Democrats' sizable margins in the Senate also will hamper the
Republicans' effort to regain ground in the 2028 elections, in which
the GOP will be defending states such as Wisconsin, North Carolina
and Iowa where Democrats made significant gains on Tuesday.
“Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or
Alito during President Trump’s term: Zero,” Florida Gov. Ron
DeSantis posted on X after Tuesday’s elections. “Chance of
confirming a worthy successor during a hypothetical GOP admin
2029-2033: probably zero (GOP won’t be able to recapture enough
seats in 28).”
Historically, some justices have timed their retirements with the
president who would name their successor in mind, but it’s far from
the only consideration in their decision-making.
Former liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously resisted efforts
from progressives to retire when President Barack Obama, a Democrat,
was in office and died in the last year of Trump’s first term,
allowing him to replace her with conservative Justice Amy Coney
Barrett.
Barrett would go on in 2022 to join the majority opinion in Dobbs v.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which erased the constitutional
right to an abortion.
Even if there were a surprise Supreme Court vacancy in the coming
weeks, lame-duck confirmations while Republicans still remain in
power aren’t a sure thing.
Trump effectively forced Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina out of a
reelection bid. That seat was won Tuesday by one of the state's
former governors, Democrat Roy Cooper. The president also opposed
two Republican incumbents in their primary races, Sen. Bill Cassidy
of Louisiana and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Democrats flipped the
seat in Texas. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, another Republican who
lost, attributed her defeat in part to Trump.
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