Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court is 9 seats. It is US-only. Holding a justice seat does not occupy your current office: you can sit on the Court and still be a Senator, governor, or private citizen.

Seats#

Each seat has a current occupant (a player, an NPP, or a scripted historical justice) or is vacant.

Each preset begins with its Original Roster. When an original justice reaches their authored departure year, the seat becomes vacant. Historical successors are not appointed automatically: the President nominates and the Senate confirms every replacement.

Nomination and confirmation#

The President nominates. The Senate confirms by simple majority, using the same seat-weighted Senate vote machinery as cabinet confirmation. See Confirmation Process.

A Court packed by one party hurts democratic health on a sliding scale. A 5-4 split is normal and costs nothing. From about 6-3 of the seated bench upward, one-party control subtracts from the country's Governance Style health score. Filling every vacancy from the same party is the most expensive. Vacant seats do not count.

A justice seat is not a cabinet office and is not gated by year the way HUD or Homeland Security are.

Docket#

Curated historical cases resolve against the sitting Court on the calendar year the world actually shows, not the raw turn counter. A majority on the case's tagged axis can diverge from the historical outcome; a divergence can enact policy through the same bill-enactment pipeline as legislation. An evenly split bench (4-4, or no seated majority at all) reaches no decision: the case affirms the existing outcome and history is unchanged.

Surprise cases can also fire: non-historical docket items that resolve the same turn they spawn. They still produce a ruling from the sitting majority.

Tenure#

Original historical occupants leave when their authored departure is reached, opening a live appointment. After that first appointment, a sitting justice (player or NPP) can leave mid-term; the President and occupant are notified when a seat opens. The Court does not keep a confirmed player forever.

See also: Bills & Legislation, Cabinet, Impeachment.