To protect the supreme court’s legitimacy, a conservative justice should step down | Lawrence Douglas

If presidents do not get to replace justices in an election year, then Coney Barrett's confirmation is illegitimate; if presidents do, then Gorsuch's is illegitimate. You can't have it both ways

In Planned Parenthood v Casey, a landmark decision from 1992, the US supreme court memorably noted that its power lies ... in its legitimacy". If the people come to question the court's legitimacy, they will cease to accept the the Judiciary as fit to determine what the Nation's law means and to declare what it demands".

It appears that Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett share these worries. In separate remarks this month, both justices sought to assure the public that, in Coney Barrett's words, this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks". Thomas said much the same, seeking to disabuse his listeners of the belief that justices are just always going right to [their] personal preference".