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{"id":27430,"date":"2026-10-07T12:04:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T12:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-braces-for-scotus-fight-that-may-not-come\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T12:04:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T12:04:43","slug":"capitol-agenda-gop-braces-for-scotus-fight-that-may-not-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gop-braces-for-scotus-fight-that-may-not-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: GOP braces for SCOTUS fight that may not come"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Senate Republicans are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/07\/senate-supreme-court-lame-duck-01109203\" target=\"_blank\"><u>privately ready for<\/u><\/a> a post-election Supreme Court nomination fight that may never come.<\/p>\n<p>There aren\u2019t too many signs from the two oldest justices \u2014 78-year-old Clarence Thomas and 76-year-old Samuel Alito \u2014 that either plans to retire in the coming months and force Republicans to spring into action to fill a vacancy.<\/p>\n<p>But the two men would face a mountain of pressure to step down in the lame-duck period if Democrats retake the Senate, which could essentially shut down confirmations of President Donald Trump\u2019s favored nominees.<\/p>\n<p>Such a retirement announcement would kick off a chaotic sprint on Capitol Hill, giving Republicans just five scheduled session weeks to cobble together 50 votes for a Trump nominee.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans in a position to act said in recent interviews they would certainly try to rapidly confirm any Trump pick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would proceed quickly with such a vacancy,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley said \u201cof course\u201d they would. Sen. Thom Tillis, a frequent Trump critic who could single-handedly bottle up a nominee in Judiciary, said he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d support a post-election confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to use your majority position to take that vote,\u201d Tillis said.<\/p>\n<p>Several senators, including Thune, are skeptical a vacancy even happens. Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/10\/06\/congress\/alito-retirement-lame-duck-01108410\" target=\"_blank\"><u>told Bloomberg News<\/u><\/a> in an interview published Tuesday he would \u201cstick around\u201d at least until the court\u2019s current term ends early next summer. Thomas hasn\u2019t publicly addressed his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2019\/06\/justice-thomas-says-he-has-no-stress-and-is-doing-fine\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>retirement<\/u><\/a> in years and has otherwise given no signs of imminent plans to quit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why you assume there will be one,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins, another potentially pivotal vote who left the door open to filling any vacancy, pointing to her longstanding position that \u201cas long as it\u2019s not close to a presidential election that we should proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with battle scars from prior confirmation fights over Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson aren\u2019t ready to entertain the thought of a lame-duck confirmation sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, gosh,\u201d said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. \u201cYou\u2019re giving me the chills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u2014 INSIDE COONS\u2019 ISRAEL TURNABOUT:\u00a0<\/b>Sen. Chris Coons is likely to chair Foreign Relations if Democrats win the Senate, and \u2014 in what he describes as a \u201cfairly sharp break\u201d in his thinking \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/06\/inside-chris-coons-turnabout-on-israel-01109299\" target=\"_blank\"><u>he\u2019s not ruling out sanctions on Israel\u2019s prime minister<\/u><\/a>. The Delaware senator\u2019s evolution matches that of other moderate Democrats in the three years since Hamas\u2019 deadly Oct. 7 attack triggered a military response that Israel\u2019s critics have said amounted to genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\n <br \/>\n <b>\u2014 TRUMP COLLEGE TAX RULES WORRY DEMS<\/b>: Democratic lawmakers are worried proposed Trump administration rules targeting diversity initiatives on college campuses could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/07\/college-tax-exempt-trump-regulations-01105427\" target=\"_blank\"><u>threaten universities\u2019 finances over commonplace activities<\/u><\/a>. \u201cWhat if a university has Black History Month?\u201d Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who sits on the tax-writing Finance Committee, said in a recent interview. \u201cIs that going to cause them to lose their tax-exempt status?\u201d The IRS regulations proposed Sept. 3 are slated to go into effect next June. Supporters say the rules should be used to prevent schools from considering race in decisions over who they admit, hire and promote, for example.<br \/>\n <br \/>\n <b>\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n <br \/>\n <i>Jordain Carney, Daniella Cheslow and Brian Faler contributed to this report.<\/i><br \/>\n \n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate Republicans are privately ready for a post-election Supreme Court nomination fight that may never come. There aren\u2019t too many signs from the two oldest justices \u2014 78-year-old Clarence Thomas and 76-year-old Samuel Alito \u2014 that either plans to retire in the coming months and force Republicans to spring into action to fill a vacancy. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}