 If you regain the majority in 2022 for the Republicans, and there's a very good chance of that happening. I'll come back to the individuals in a second. Would the rule that you applied in 2016 to the Scalia vacancy apply in 2024 to any vacancy that occurred then? Well, I think in the middle of a presidential election, if you have a Senate of the opposite party of the president, you have to go back to the 1880s to find the last time vacancy was filled. I think it's highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don't think either party, if it controlled, if it were different from the president would confirm a Supreme Court nominee in the middle of an election. What was different in 2020 was we were of the same party as the president. That was Senate Minority Leader, obviously, Mitch McConnell, stating what should be already apparent to people if you've been paying attention. If Republicans retake control of the Senate in 2022 and there's a Supreme Court vacancy that emerges in 2024, obviously, he's not going to fill that seat with someone Joe Biden nominates. He's going to hold that seat open until a Republican assumes power once again, and then he's going to fill the seat. It doesn't matter what the optics are. He doesn't care about how hypocritical it makes him look. All he cares about is power. And he's effective at gaining power. And even though he's disgusting and he's a liar, I wish that Democrats would emulate his strategy at least a little bit if they want to be somewhat effective. But basically what what he's telling everyone is that it really doesn't matter what the circumstances are, what the political context is at that given moment, if a Democrat is in the White House and I'm in control of the Senate, they're not going to get a seat. I'll just make up an excuse based on whatever is convenient. And that's that. This is what Mitch McConnell has been doing and what he will continue to do so long as he is the leader of the Republican Party. But that was 2024. What about 2023? The same thing still applies. And I think that Mark Joseph Stern of Slade put it best. Republicans will never confirm another Democrat appointed Supreme Court judge. And this is obvious. Like this is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention and anyone who doesn't see this and assume this is the case is naive. Now, when asked about the possibility of a vacancy being filled in 2023, if Republicans control the Senate, Mitch McConnell said, well, we'd have to wait and see what happens. In other words, no, again, he doesn't care what the year is. If it's an election year or a non-election year, his goal is to pack the Supreme Court with right wingers. And he's already stolen two seats from Democratic administrations. And do you think he's going to stop now all of a sudden? Because there's been a lot of backlash. He doesn't care. It's Mitch McConnell. So even though I think this is all obvious and the question didn't even need to be asked in order for us to learn what the answer would be. What I do think is important about this story is that it's renewed calls for the Supreme Court to be expanded, even if it seems like a long shot. So as Jake Johnson of Common Dreams explains, progressive calls to add seats to the US Supreme Court gained fresh urgency Monday after Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested he would block President Joe Biden from filling a potential high court vacancy if Republicans rest back control of the upper chamber in next year's midterms. Mitch McConnell is already foreshadowing that he'll steal a third Supreme Court seat if he gets the chance, tweeted Senator Ed Marquis, referring to the Kentucky Republican's obstruction of Garland, as well as the GOP's successful confirmation of just this Amy Coney Barrett just eight days out from the 2020 presidential election. He's done it before and he'll do it again, Marquis added. We need to expand the Supreme Court. Marquis is the lead Senate sponsor of the Judiciary Act of 2021 by camera legislation that aims to counter right wing dominance of the Supreme Court by adding four seats to the body, bringing the total to 13. But Biden has thus far declined to back calls to expand the Supreme Court, opting instead to form a 36 member commission tasked with studying reform ideas, including the addition of seats. So put simply, Biden doesn't support expanding the court. What he's trying to do is placate the folks who are advocating for the court to be expanded and when inevitably he doesn't do that, he can at least say, well, look, I put some effort into it. We have this commission and yeah, he's giving himself plausible deniability, but this commission is not going to lead to the court being expanded. It's just not. And as Demand Justice puts it, we don't have time to wait for a commission of academics to publish a pro con list, expand the court now. And that's exactly it. Democrats don't really seem to grasp the implications of this far right court being in control. They have a six three majority currently. So we're possibly looking at the prospect of affirmative action being ruled unconstitutional, Roe v. Wade being overturned. This court is going to dismantle what is left of our democracy. And the only way to stop right wing court packing is to expand the size of the court. There's nothing in the Constitution that says it should only be nine justices. But I know by now I'm preaching to the choir. Most people who watch this already know the importance of expanding the court. The bad news is that even though calls have been renewed to expand the Supreme Court, it's not going to amount to Joe Biden expanding the Supreme Court. He's just he's not going to do it. He's weak. He won't even stand up to people in his own party, let alone Republicans. So, you know, what's going to happen is the Republican dominance of our judiciary and entire judicial system, you know, not just the Supreme Court, but the hundreds of justices at the federal level that Trump appointed. They're going to dismantle any progressive reforms that actually do get through and we will continue to circle the drain as a country. Democracy will continue to be eroded and Republican mega donors will get exactly what they want. It's depressing and I don't mean to be too doomer. But if we don't take drastic action and expand the court, this is what's going to happen. And also we should abolish the Senate as well or at it because abolishing the Senate will break the stronghold that right wing states have on our entire democracy. But I mean, that's a different story for a different day. What matters right now for purposes of this story is expanding the Supreme Court because Mitch McConnell just signaled to Democrats that he's going to continue to pack the courts with right wingers. And if Democrats don't stand up and actually fight this by expanding the Supreme Court, then. What's been happening will continue to happen. The country will continue to be destroyed by these psychopaths who don't care about anything. They don't care about civil rights, civil liberties. They don't care about anything but appeasing their right wing donors.