In a clearly obvious and desperate attempt to bribe “conservatives” to vote for him in November, Donald Trump released a list of 20 new Supreme Court nominees he says he will consider in the event of a vacancy between now and the end of his second term . . . assuming he has one.
The list of 20 new Supreme Court nominees are in addition to an original list from 2016 — a list he has “amended” several times during his first term. For example, Trump added (and eventually nominated) Brett Kavanaugh to the list in 2018 when Trump was looking to avoid indictment during the Mueller investigation. Kavanaugh was already on record at the time that a sitting president is essentially above the law.
By the way, Gorsuch wasn’t on Trump’s 2016 list either.
Trump’s list of 20 new Supreme Court nominees included three sitting U.S. Senators: Ted Cruz (TX), Tom Cotton (AR), and Josh Hawley (MO). Interesting picks for a list of people Trump claims were selected because they will hold back the tide of socialism and will interpret the Constitution as written.
Ted Cruz has become so Trumpified that his Liberty Score® at Conservative Review has fallen from just shy of 100% (A) B.T. (Before Trump) to a current 78% (C).
Tom Cotton, whose Liberty Score® was already a dismal 75% (C) B.T., has dropped to 70% (C) — just one point above a (D). One of Cotton’s claims to fame as a Trumpist was being one of the first so-called conservatives to support Trump’s plan to grant amnesty and citizenship to illegal aliens.
Josh Hawley has no B.T. score because he was elected in 2018. But in his brief time in the U.S. Senate, he has only managed to earn a 70% (C) — also just one point above a (D). Worse than his Liberty Score®, however, is Hawley’s embrace of the socialist philosophy being promoted by conservatism’s new Nationalist brand.
Trump explained the importance of his list of Supreme Court nominees, and he issued a warning of the consequences awaiting America should he not be reelected. Here are a few excerpts:
EXCERPT ONE
“Four years ago, I announced my first list of highly qualified candidates and promised to fill Justice Scalia’s vacant seat from among — from among those names.
“Just days after my inauguration, I kept that promise when I nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch. And, as you know, he has been very spectacular. A year later, I nominated and the Senate confirmed another outstanding justice, Brett Kavanaugh.”
As I mentioned above, neither Gorsuch nor Kavanaugh were on his first list.
EXCERPT TWO
“What has always made America exceptional is our reverence for the impartial rule of law. People have come here from all over the world to pursue the American Dream based on this sacred principle.
“Unfortunately, there is a growing radical-left movement that rejects the principle of equal treatment under law.”
Trump has spent his entire business career rejecting “equal treatment under the law.” And as president, he has abused his power to avoid prosecution of serious crimes. Yesterday, it was announced that the Department of Justice has intervened in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Trump. Carroll has accused Trump of rape, and he says that’s a lie.
If the DOJ succeeds, taxpayers will be on the hook for Trump’s legal bills, and Attorney General Barr can keep the case tied up, allowing Trump to reject “equal treatment under the law” indefinitely.
EXCERPT THREE
“If this extreme movement is granted a majority on the Supreme Court, it will fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress.”
Trump has been fundamentally transforming America — an obvious reference to Barack Obama — by issuing executive orders just as Obama did to do as he pleases on a host of issues without a vote from Congress.
EXCERPT FOUR
Radical justices will erase the Second Amendment, silence political speech, and require taxpayers to fund extreme late-term abortion.
Trump has done more damage to the Second Amendment than Obama ever dreamed. Trump has made silencing speech and the press a cornerstone of his “Fake News” propaganda machine. Trump has required taxpayers to fund the abortion industry by giving Planned Parenthood record amounts of funding.
The rest of Trump’s statement in defending his list of new Supreme Court nominees was little more than the mindless blathering and baseless accusations we hear just about every time he opens his mouth anymore.
He promised that “radical justices” will “remove ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance” and “unilaterally declare the death penalty unconstitutional, even for the most depraved mass murderers.” He also said “they will erase national borders, cripple police departments, and grant new protections to anarchists, rioters, violent criminals, and terrorists.”
Indirectly, Trump provided reasons why the Supreme Court shouldn’t be a primary voting issue when he concluded that the court would be using power it doesn’t have according to the Constitution.
In an article from a few years ago, Daniel Horowitz wrote that our founders never thought the courts had the final say — and neither should we. On the issue of the power of the Supreme Court, he said:
“It is true that there is a concept of res judicata – finality in judgement – for individual plaintiffs in civil and criminal cases. But if the courts in that process are going to engage in review of legislation and broad political issues affecting the entire country in order to resolve a case or controversy, there was never any understanding that we’d apply res judicata to judicial review.
“The truth is that court opinions are not self-executing and universally binding as broad legal and political precedent on the other two branches. There are numerous tools at the disposal of Congress to prospectively and retrospectively check the judiciary through legislation, not by constitutional amendment, and the federal courts only have the jurisdiction vested in them by Congress.”
In the end, Trump’s list of 20 new Supreme Court nominees is nothing but another reelection ploy to be added to the list of recycled campaign promises from 2016, a list that also includes promises to rein in spending, defund Planned Parenthood, and fix healthcare.
And just as it was in 2016, it’s nothing but a pack of lies.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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