Trump repeatedly berates judges for ruling in ways he disagrees with, even before he was president. During the 2015 campaign he proudly declared that his “judicial appointments will do the right thing unlike Bush's appointee John Roberts on ObamaCare. ”. The reasonable inference is that Trump expects his judicial appointments to rule in his favor. Trump thinks he should prevail in all litigation. Therefore he expects his appointees to find in his favor. Surely this is obviously a reasonable conclusion.
It is next shown that Mr. Trump wants nine justices on the Supreme Court because he thinks the 2020 election will be disputed there. The quotes are not taken out of
context
“I think it’s very important. I think this will end up in the Supreme Court. And I think it’s very important that we have nine justices. And I think the system is going to go very quickly. I’ll be submitting at 5 o’clock on Saturday, the name of the person I chose for this most important of all positions. And I think we should go very quickly. You see the Republicans are very united. As far as timing is concerned, we were elected. We have a lot of time. One justice was picked in 19 days — 19 days. We could do four at that rate or five. Now we have a lot of time. No, before the election, and then you have after the election too. But in terms of time, we go to Jan. 20. But I think it’s better if you go before the election because I think this scam that the Democrats are pulling — it’s a scam. The scam will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation. If you get that. I don’t know that you’d get that. I think it should be 8-0 or 9-0, but just in case it would be more political than it should be. I think it’s very important to have a ninth justice.”
There is this "President" calling the elcetion a "scam" perpetrated by his opponents. The President, has stated out in the open his "conflict of interest" - he picks a Supreme Court Justice, and he predicts that Justice will decide whether the President continues to be President, and he expects that Justice to rule in his favor. These are all reasonable motives that further the President’s self-interest… it presents a clear conflict of interest and a significant possibility for a corrupt bargain:
“I appoint you, you rule that I get re-elected.”
Whether or not that bargain was actually entered into, or whether it could be enforced upon a Justice Barrett, I think the appearance of impropriety is too detrimental to justify her participation in a case that decides this election.
Trump has refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose. He has expressed his desire to install a justice in expectation of election-related disputes being resolved by the court — and it is plain that he expects that justice to rule on his behalf. His comments suggests a desire to replace the democratic process with a judicial one, controlled by a court whose partisan orientation runs against present estimates of the national popular orientation. Trump’s nomination of Barrett to the SC is not about principles, precedent, ideas or theories of constitutional interpretation; it’s about the GOP exercising power via America’s counter-majoritarian institutions to ram through unpopular proposals.
A highly unpopular and impeached Trump is now attempting to lock in his party’s unpopular policies for generations using the force of the nation’s undemocratic institutions to do it.
Barrett should recuse herself with a big Fuck You! , This nomination is cheapened with the way Trump and the Republicans are tearing down the integrity of our election process.