LIBERAL HIGH COURT JUDGES: ”DO NOT RETIRE WHILE TRUMP IN WHITE HOUSE”

…Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts

 

President Trump thinks the Supreme Court is “held” by the GOP

 

I was surprised when I read that the 97 year old former Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens, had called for the repeal of the 2^nd Amendment.  ( A call by the way that won’t happen, isn’t necessary and it wouldn’t do any good anyway.)

 

But as usual, the response from the president was both bizarre and totally ignorant.

Here is what the president tweeted: : “THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and [we] must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!”

 

First, the Democrats don’t want the 2^nd Amendment repealed.  They just want it to be properly applied as the founders meant it to be.  The founders did not mean for American civilians to have available military assault weapons and gun accessories like giant ammo magazines and bump-stocks for killing hundreds of civilians.

 

But the other part of Trump’s statement, “[we] . . . must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court,” sounds like he is saying that the Supreme Court is something that is an prize that belongs to which ever party won the presidency in the last election.

 

Trump just can’t seem to fathom and understand that his presidency is just one of the three organizations that runs a democratic government, and the president is not a king or a dictator.

 

As always, Trump shows both his ignorance and his lack of understanding of his own government,  But he certainly knows what to say for motivating his base that thinks that the Fox network is “Real News”, and every other network is “Fake News”. He is still totally ignorant of both the Congress and the Judiciary as independent institutions and of the courts responsibility for maintaining the nation’s rule of law

 

Trump just had to make another negative statement about former President Obama, ““When I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed.  It was like a big beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did [President Obama] leave that?”

 

Why you ask?  Perhaps it was because the Republicans, along with their leader. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the US Senate, (where the judges are confirmed), they did their best to block as many as possible of Obama’s nominations.

We must remember that Trump thinks that judges are just another set of political actors, either on or off the Team Trump .  He really believes that when a judge rules against Trump’s political or financial interests, they are to be demeaned by calling them, “Mexican judges”, or “so-called judges”, and that they should be bullied.  Such as when he tweeted: “Just cannot believe a judge would put our country in such peril,” Trump tweeted this after a judge ruled to halt his travel ban. He then followed that tweet with, “If something happens blame him [the judge] and the court system.” This just showed more Trump judicial ignorance.

Trump has no concept that the Supreme Court is not “held” by Republicans.  It is occupied by judges who are nominated by Republican or Democratic presidents and confirmed by a Senate that has a Republican or Democratic majority. Obviously, Trump is unaware of this, but as an example, Justice Stevens, who turned out to be a stalwart liberal, was nominated by a Republican president, Gerald Ford.

 

As a general matter of course: Judges selected by Republicans, especially in the current environment of their sensitivity to the role of the judiciary, they are going to be different in their judicial philosophy than the judges selected by Democratic presidents.  The conservative Republican nominated judges are usually more wary of expanding constitutional rights or inserting courts into political and social disputes.

 

That is why the Chief Justice, John G. Roberts famous baseball umpire analogy, that depicted Supreme Court  judges as, “neutral arbiters dispassionately using their ‘Very Big Brains’ to reason through legal problems,” was so frustrating.  It was also highly unsatisfying and ultimately, misleading. “I believe that there are right answers,” Roberts said, “and judges, if they work hard enough, are likely to come up with them.”

 

But that’s a bunch of B.S., especially at the level of the Supreme Court.

 

The Supreme Court doesn’t work that way.  The justices are not computers, they are humans, yes, very smart ones, with very well-thought-through views about the Constitution and the law.

 

But, when you have a Republican run senate, they don’t look at which judges would be the best judge that would look for a legal answer that was within the Constitution and the law.  As an example, Mitch McConnell says, “All’s fair in love and judicial nominations.” And his brute-force refusal to consider Merrick Garland’s nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia stems from that same anything-goes conviction.

 

The future of the high court, and the judiciary generally, is not solely a Republican concern. The Post’s Ronald Klain has predicted a “battle of the ages” if Justice Anthony M. Kennedy retires this summer,  Klain is one that thinks this would motivate Democrats more than Republicans.

 

But it’s highly disturbing to think of the judiciary as a spoil-of-war that can never be permitted to vote for or support the other political  side.  Judges should never arrive at the bench with a party’s platform as their guide.

 

The Supreme Court functions best when its justices’ views are tested and contested, when the judges have to defend their interpretations and temper their positions to accommodate alternate ideologies.

 

A court composed entirely or overwhelmingly of justices appointed by the presidents of a single party, whether Republican or Democratic, is a far more flawed court, and therefore a potentially more dangerous branch of government.

 

But that is exactly what Trump is planning on for any additional justices he may be required to nominate.  He wants those that would only favor whatever Trump wants, whether it’s constitutional and correct or not.

 

That’s why it’s so important that none of the more liberal justices retire while Trump is in office.

 

Nuff said.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018