When Donald Trump demanded that Senate Republicans confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court before last month's elections, the incumbent president was quite explicit about his intentions. Trump wasn't simply thinking about conservative jurisprudence over the next couple of decades; he was also thinking a far-right Supreme Court would help him hold power if he lost his re-election bid.

It was never altogether clear, however, how exactly this was supposed to work. The president, however, couldn't be bothered with details: Trump seemed to believe that once his allies represented a third of the Supreme Court, the justices would simply do his bidding.