[twelfthnight]

The article mentions Clarence Thomas has been courted (even bribed?) by the very people paying the lawyers trying to overturn Chevron. I think it's naive to believe the judges don't have policy preferences that are strongly reflected in their rulings... If that wasn't the case the GOP wouldn't have blocked nominations from Obama to get their preferred judges in.

[psunavy03]

For sure, the President and Congress try to get Justices who agree with them. But you only have to go back to Anthony Kennedy and David Souter to realize that once they're on the Court, the Justices don't seem to ever feel beholden to the party or President that appointed them. George H. W. Bush appointed Souter, who ended up as one of the most reliably liberal Justices on the Court. Trump has been consistently smacked down by the very Justices he appointed.

And as sketchy as some of Thomas's dealings look, he's one of nine. Assuming for the sake of argument that he IS bought and paid for, you still need at least four other people to sign on to anything he says for it to be a ruling.

[relaxing]

“No more Souters” has been the explicit rallying cry of the Right ever since.

You also have to look at who controlled the Senate in those years.