No Citizens United

What if the decision had gone the other way? How would American politics have been different in the last five years? As for the POD, I will use the least complicated and least controversial of my many liberal Supreme Court TLs.
In 1967, Earl Warren decides to retire. Johnson nominates Associate Justice Abe Fortas to replace Warren and Appeals Court Judge Homer Thornberry to replace Fortas. The Senate confirms both of them. In 1969, the revelation that Fortas took money for undisclosed projects from a foundation run by Louis Wolfson. a financier who was later convicted of securities fraud created a scandal. After pressure from the Nixon Justice Department, Fortas resigned. He was replaced by Warren Berger. In 1971, Harry Blackmun and William Rehnquist joined the court, after the retirement of Hugo Black and John Harlan. In 1975 John Paul Stevens replaced William O Douglas. In 1978, Justice Thornberry left the court and Shirley Hoffsteder took his place. In 1981, Robert Bork came to the court after Potter Stewart retired. In 1986, Chief Justice Berger stepped down and William Rehnquist became the new leader of the court. Antonin Scaiia replaced Rehnquist. In 1990, William Brennan left the court and David Souter took his place. Although Thurgood Marshall was getting old and falling apart he knew he had to preserve the court's liberal majority, he delayed retirement. After his death on January 24, 1993, Clinton nominated Appeals Court Judge Harry Edwards. After the 1993 term, Byron White retired and Ruth Bader Ginsberg replaced him. In 1994, Harry Blackmun retired and was replaced by Stephen Bryer. In 2005 Chief Justice Rehnquist died and John Roberts took over. In 2009. David Sutor and Harry Edwards retired they were replaced by Sonia Sotomeyer and Leah Ward Sears.
So when the court handed down the decision in Citizens United, Justices Stevens, Hoffsteder, Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomeyer and Sears signed a decision that preserved the regulations on corporate and union political speech. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Bork and Scaiia desented.
 
If you have to go back 42 years, that's not the least complicated POD. Simpler to just have Rehnquist or O'Connor hold out until 2007, where Bush has to get his nominee through a Democratic Senate, and he's forced to nominate someone more moderate.
 
If you have to go back 42 years, that's not the least complicated POD. Simpler to just have Rehnquist or O'Connor hold out until 2007, where Bush has to get his nominee through a Democratic Senate, and he's forced to nominate someone more moderate.

They would not be liberal enough.
 
Who fills the vacancies when Stevens retires and Bork dies at the end of 2012? And what of Bush vs. Gore ITTL?

Elena Kagan replaces Stevens just like OTL. Appeals Court Judge Jacquline Nguyen takes Bork's place. Once she gets on the court. The SCOTUS looks like America. It has a female majority and White, Black, Hispanic and Asian members. I also think that Hofstedder would retire and be replaced by Diane Wood. Five years after the end of this timeline, the court has five Obama appointees, one Bush appointee, two Clinton appointees and one Reagan sppointee
 
They would not be liberal enough.

Not necessarily. One can certainly conceive of a fairly conservative Republican nominee who would go the other way in *Citizens United*--after all., there was a McCain in McCain-Feingold.

What I don't get about your alternative is that you have the POD so far back in the past that so many more important things would change long before *Citizens United*--yet you seem to assume everything else stays the same. It's like "If there was no Mexican War, how would that impact the Harding administration?" :p
 
Who fills the vacancies when Stevens retires and Bork dies at the end of 2012? And what of Bush vs. Gore ITTL?

Not necessarily. One can certainly conceive of a fairly conservative Republican nominee who would go the other way in *Citizens United*--after all., there was a McCain in McCain-Feingold.

What I don't get about your alternative is that you have the POD so far back in the past that so many more important things would change long before *Citizens United*--yet you seem to assume everything else stays the same. It's like "If there was no Mexican War, how would that impact the Harding administration?" :p

How about extending Rehnquist's life four years. I read that Rehnquist was mad at Bush for firing his daughter. Chief Justice Granholm, Justices Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Sotomeyer sign the decision that maintains the restrictions on corporate and Union. Political spending. Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Roberts dissent.
 
They would not be liberal enough.
Not neccessarily; especially since Republicans have a bad record of appointments blowing up in their faces. Some conservatives are opposed to Citizens United for various reasons.

Or, for a slightly more complicated but still simpler than your butterfly-free scenario, have a scandal hit Bush in 2003 or 2004 and have Kerry win the White House. Bam, at least two Democrats appointed to the court.
 
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