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Carswell confirmed

R

Ricardolindo

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What if George Harrold Carswell had been confirmed to the Supreme Court? I don't think he'd move to the left as Blackmun did. However,
we know he was gay or bisexual as in 1976, he was convicted of battery for advancements to an undercover police officer in Tallahasee and in 1979, he was beaten by a man he had invited to his hotel room in Atlanta for the same behavior. Such an incident would probably still have happened, either in Washington DC when the Court was in session or in Florida when it wasn't. Then, there would have been intense pressure on Carswell to resign. If he refused to resign, would he have been impeached? Also, his successor depends on the President at the time. Under Nixon and especially Reagan, he would probably be more conservative than under Ford and especially Carter.
I think it's possible that Blackmun would still become a Justice. Burger would lobby for him. He may well be nominated to succeed Hugo Black or John Marshall Harlan II.
 
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Also, considering how unqualified he was, what would his relationships with the other Justices look like?
Also, I find it more likely that Blackmun would be nominated to succeed John Marshall Harlan II than Hugo Black as Hugo Black was a Southerner and Nixon would want a Southerner, like Powell, to succeed him.
 
I'm pretty doubtful that Carswell would be trying to cottage in toilets if he was actually on the supreme court. I imagine that was probably a function of his career taking a dive. Certainly if he'd been cottaging before 1970 then I can't imagine it wouldn't have been disclosed at the time of his nomination, as both the most absolutely direct way of killing his nomination and also of utterly embarassing the Nixon White House.

It's very possible that Blackmun gets the OTL Powell appointment but he was already in his sixties when he was appointed OTL. If he doesn't get that then I don't think Ford is appointing a sixty-six year old.
 
Elektronaut said:
I'm pretty doubtful that Carswell would be trying to cottage in toilets if he was actually on the supreme court. I imagine that was probably a function of his career taking a dive. Certainly if he'd been cottaging before 1970 then I can't imagine it wouldn't have been disclosed at the time of his nomination, as both the most absolutely direct way of killing his nomination and also of utterly embarassing the Nixon White House.

It's very possible that Blackmun gets the OTL Powell appointment but he was already in his sixties when he was appointed OTL. If he doesn't get that then I don't think Ford is appointing a sixty-six year old.
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Assuming such an incident still happened, though, do you think he would have resigned? If not, do you think he would have been impeached?
As I said, I think it's more likely that Blackmun would have been nominated to succeed John Marshall Harlan II as Nixon would probably want a fellow Southerner, like Powell, to succeed Hugo Black. Admittedly, Nixon's interest in a Southern Justice would have been smaller if Carswell had been confirmed. Still, I think he would want to replace a Southerner with another Southerner.
 
Yeah, he would have been off the court if it still happened. But as I said it's massively unlikely it still happens, given the levels of police entrapment, violence, and sheer risk involved in cottaging in those days. Or indeed just the gay scene generally. It wasn't a safe space and there was a high risk that you would be arrested, beaten, or fined, or all of the above, even if you weren't cottaging, but just going to bars or going on the scene. There was also a lot of men targeting other men for abuse because the police didn't give a shit about that kind of thing.

If Carswell pursued his sexuality on the court then he'd almost certainly do it in a much more discrete way.
 
Carswell died on 26 July 1992. Assuming he died on the same date and he was still on the Court and the political situation was the same as in our timeline, do you think the Democratic Senate would accept a Bush nominee? They may not mind as it would be a conservative for conservative replacement. However, they may also wish to balance Thomas replacing Marshall the prevuous year.
 
Could this prevent Roe v. Wade? I think Carswell would vote against it and, without Blackmun on the Supreme Court, I think Burger would also vote against it. I doubt the Supreme Court would be willing to do such a drastic decision with only a 5-4 majority. Is it possible that they would strike down the Texas law that only abortion in case of threat to the woman's life but to uphold the Georgia law that also allowed it in case of rape?
 
Ricardolindo said:
Could this prevent Roe v. Wade? I think Carswell would vote against it and, without Blackmun on the Supreme Court, I think Burger would also vote against it. I doubt the Supreme Court would be willing to do such a drastic decision with only a 5-4 majority. Is it possible that they would strike down the Texas law that only abortion in case of threat to the woman's life but to uphold the Georgia law that also allowed it in case of rape?
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Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
 
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