President-elect Donald Trump could convince the justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Clarence Thomas to retire in an effort to consolidate the conservative supermajority on the court, lawyer David Lat said.

After Trump won the election against the vice president Kamala Harris in what has been nicknamed the the greatest political comeback in US history this week, many are wondering what this could mean for America.

Lat, who describes himself as a “lawyer turned legal journalist,” wrote about how he thinks Trump’s second term could impact the Supreme Court.

He doesn’t believe Trump will make the Court more conservative because “it would be difficult to overwhelm Justice Thomas and (Justice Samuel) Alito to the right,” but he may want to “significantly increase the likelihood that the large conservative majority will endure for another generation,” Lat wrote in his Substack Original Jurisdiction.

Trump could try to accomplish this by convincing Thomas, 76, to retire during his next presidential term. Thomas is close to the average retirement age for Supreme Court justices (75 and older) and Trump would like to replace him with an “ultra-conservative choice” despite having a majority within the party. Senate.

“With Republicans holding between 52 and 54 seats in the Senate, Trump will have wide latitude in selecting a candidate,” Lat wrote.

“So if Justices Thomas and Alito retire during the first two years of Trump’s term, when he has a favorable Senate, Trump can replace them with equally conservative successors, but decades younger. “

Lat thinks getting Thomas to retire would be more difficult than Alito, 74, who attorney and political commentator Ed Wheelan already predicted would retire in the spring of 2026 in his recent article for the National review.

“Judge Thomas is trickier,” Lat wrote, saying that, among other reasons, Thomas would have no reason to want to leave because he is “arguably more influential than he has ever been.”

On top of that, Thomas may want to surpass Justice William O. Douglas as the longest-serving justice.

“But he could be persuasive,” Lat wrote, “especially if the Trump administration hints (or promises) that it will replace him with one of his former aides who would carry on his legacy, such as Judge James Ho or the judge Kathryn Mizelle.”

News week contacted the Supreme Court’s Office of Public Information and Trump’s team via email for comment.

Lat’s argument includes the fact that the only three liberal justices on the court…Sonia Sotomayor70, Elena Kagan64 years old, and Ketanji Brown Jackson54, are too far from retirement age for Trump to count on replacing one of them with a conservative.

The current large conservative majority on the Court was secured during Trump’s first term, when he appointed the justices. Neil Gorsuch57, Brett Kavanaugh59 years old, and Amy Coney Barrett52, resulting in a 6-3 decision reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The court was marred by controversy late last year and early this one, with Thomas named in a 2023 ProPublica report for failing to disclose gifts and travel Since Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.

Thomas is the longest serving member of the current courthaving received a lifetime appointment in 1991 after being appointed to the bench by the president George H. W. Bush.