AHC/WI: POTUS Appoints Themselves Chief Justice of SCOTUS

Statesman

Alright, so this is a pretty self explanatory title I think... Just wondering under what circumstances would/could a President appoint themselves as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? Who would be most likely to do such a thing?

I suppose just appointing themselves to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice is worthy of discussion, too.

It's not entirely unprecedented in American politics for an executive to appoint themselves to some other branch of government. I suppose the most obvious example is a Governor appointing themselves to the Senate, but this idea is something altogether different.
 

Politibrit

The biggest issue would be that it would be blatantly unconstitutional to do that whilst they remained POTUS, whereas a Governor naming themselves to the US Senate is appointing themselves to a different government, rather than a separate branch of the same one.
 

Statesman

JDrakeify said:
The biggest issue would be that it would be blatantly unconstitutional to do that whilst they remained POTUS, whereas a Governor naming themselves to the US Senate is appointing themselves to a different government, rather than a separate branch of the same one.
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In what way is it unconstitutional, though? Just as a Governor resigns to fill the Senate, the President would have to resign to fill the Bench.
 
vega

vega

I imagine it would have to happen during a President's 7th or 8th year, and his party would certainly have to have a majority. Maybe he could line the confirmation up just right so that he would take office on January 20th, just as he is leaving office as President. Or he of course could resign.
 
Mad Bad Rabbit

Mad Bad Rabbit

Taft could probably abdicate and make himself Chief Justice without too much complaint. It'd lead to a vacancy when "Sunny Jim" Sherman dies.
 

Alternator

You'd need a vacancy in the Chief Justice spot to line up with a President interested in this - he can't simply demote the current Chief Justice down and replace him.

If there was some kind of historical backing for the idea - so it's not out of the blue - Taft might have been inclined to nominate himself for an open Justice position, but otherwise you probably need to switch around Presidents - none of the rest have really shown the interest.
 
Wallet

Wallet

Banned
Taft hated being president. His life dream was to be on the Supreme Court.

He could make a deal to stand down in 1912 for Roosevelt, if he agrees to pick him for the court
 

Mikestone8

Theoretically, Taft could have resigned in 1910 and allowed President James S Sherman to appoint him CJ, but afaik he never made any move to do so.

Indeed, in theory he could have appointed himself. Afaik there's nothing against it in the Constitution, which places no restriction on who can be appointed tot he CSOTUS. But would certainlly be highly controversial/
 

David Floyd

100% Constitutional. The Ineligibility Clause does not prevent a member of the Executive Branch from serving in the Judicial Branch. In fact, it isn't even clear that the President would have to resign, although one imagines he would have to recuse himself quite often.

Whether the Senate would actually confirm a President who nominated himself is a different question.
 

jahenders

Banned
fjihr said:
Nah. He's not one to break convention, much less shatter it into a million pieces.
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His use of executive orders certainly seems to have "broken convention" -- all presidents have used them, but NOT to anything like the scale and scope that he has
 
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