The Democrats’ midterm blowout has shifted attention from ballot counts to birthdates at the Supreme Court. With the party poised to control the Senate in January, conservatives are openly worrying about how long Justices Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76, can—or will—stay on the bench, and what that means for the court’s 6-3 conservative tilt, reports Reuters. Legal analysts say any quick retirement to let President Trump and the current Republican Senate confirm replacements would look blatantly political and is unlikely, absent a health crisis. “No Supreme Court justice will be confirmed under President Trump’s administration unless something happens in the next six weeks,” Ron DeSantis, Florida’s GOP governor, said Wednesday, per CNN.
Neither justice has signaled plans to step down—Alito has told some in his inner circle that he doesn’t intend to leave the bench, even with the Dems’ big wins, per the New York Times—nor has publicly known serious health issues, per Reuters. Even if one or both did abruptly resign their posts, the timeline for Republicans to push through replacements before the Democrats assume control of Congress in January would be tight. With some experts predicting that Republicans may not regain the Senate until the 2030s, conservative commentators are now joking darkly about the justices using their treadmills to stay in shape and wondering about how good their health insurance is.