The Democrats’ big win in the Senate has major implications for the Supreme Court — and for how they should think about reforming it.

It’s not just that a Democratic Senate will be able to guarantee President Donald Trump won’t get another Supreme Court pick. It’s that control of the Senate should cause Democrats to reconsider the wisdom of plans to pack the court or strip it of jurisdiction over certain issues. If a Democrat wins the presidency in 2028 and the Democrats hold the Senate, the Democrats will have a chance to flip the court from 6-3 conservative to 5-4 liberal.

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Even leaving aside the politics, consider the actuarial tables. The two oldest justices, Clarence Thomas (78) and Samuel Alito (76), are both Republican appointees. The average lifespan of a Supreme Court justice between 1975 and 1999 was 82.3 In 2032, the end of a hypothetical Democratic president’s first term, Thomas would be 84 and Alito 82.

It wasn’t so long ago that a president whose party did not control the Senate could still get a........

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