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Democrats Threaten Retaliation If Trump Fills Supreme Court Vacancy: ‘Pack the Courts’

‘Forrest Gump’ Author Winston Groom Dead at 77

FAIRHOPE, Ala.—Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into a six-Oscar winning 1994 movie that became a soaring pop cultural phenomenon, has died at age 77. Mayor Karin Wilson of Fairhope, Alabama, said in a message on social media that Groom had died in that south Alabama town. A local funeral home also confirmed the death and said arrangements were pending. “While he will be remembered for creating Forrest Gump, Winston Groom was a talented journalist & noted author of American history. Our hearts & prayers are extended to his family,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement. “Forrest Gump” was the improbable tale of a slow-witted but mathematically gifted man who was a participant or witness to key points of 20th century history—from Alabama segregationist…

Democrats Threaten Retaliation If Trump Fills Supreme Court Vacancy: ‘Pack the Courts’

Democrats are threatening to expand the Supreme Court and pack it with their own judges if the GOP moves forward with filling a vacancy left after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last week.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) wrote in a statement: “Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year. If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court.”

Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.) also wrote that if McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, “holds a vote in 2020 … we pack the court in 2021. It’s that simple.”

At the same time, an opinion writer for the Washington Post called for Joe Biden to pack the court and expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court if he wins in November.

“This is not unprecedented. The number of justices has not been static at nine; it鈥檚 changed six times, from as few as five to as many as 10. All it takes is for Congress to pass an act, and for the president to sign it. If a Biden victory came with a Democratic congressional majority, expanding the number of Supreme Court justices wouldn鈥檛 be that hard to do,” the article opines.

An adviser who served under former President Richard Nixon said Biden must announce that he will expand the Supreme Court to 11 justices. “If the GOP rushes to pack the Court, the Dems will expand the SCOTUS to 11 justices, and expand the lower federal courts by 70 to 100 new judgeships, which have long been needed. In short, he will depoliticize the federal judiciary,” said John Dean.

Democrats Threaten Retaliation If Trump Fills Supreme Court Vacancy: ‘Pack the Courts’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), accompanied by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speak to reporters following a meeting with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows as they continue to negotiate a CCP virus relief package on Capitol Hill in Washington on Aug. 7, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-N.Y.) have not made their intentions clear if McConnell attempts to nominate a Supreme Court judge before the November elections.

Republicans have called the idea to pack the courts radical and something that goes against the principles of democracy. Some Democrats have feared it could backfire, as if the Republicans gain both chambers of Congress and the presidency, they could add their own judges.

The U.S. Constitution does not require that nine justices sit on the Supreme Court, although that number has stood for more than a century. The size of the top court has been changed several times between the founding of the republic and the Civil War in the mid-19th century.

Ginsburg, considered a left-wing icon, died last week after suffering several bouts of cancer. McConnell said he will move to nominate a Supreme Court justice, and President Donald Trump told a crowd in North Carolina Saturday that he is planning to select a woman judge.

Focus News: Democrats Threaten Retaliation If Trump Fills Supreme Court Vacancy: ‘Pack the Courts’

Record-Breaking Storm Season Spawns Slow-Moving Beta Along an Already Battered Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Alpha, named Friday, took the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season into the Greek alphabet for only the second time in recorded history. The only other time the National Hurricane Center (NHC) has had to pull names from the Greek Alphabet was the historic 2005 hurricane season. Now there’s Beta. Just a few hours after Alpha was named, Tropical Storm Beta was named in the Gulf of Mexico. Beta is expected to strengthen this weekend as it slowly tracks to the northwest toward the Texas coastline. However, Beta will likely not intensify into a hurricane. “The intensity guidance has trended downward to the point where none of the models are currently forecasting Beta to become a hurricane,” according to the NHC on Saturday morning. Beta’s biggest threat will be heavy…