Donald Trump can go down as one of the greatest Presidents in American history, if he can accomplish just a few simple things that America urgently needs. Trump has already pledged to do precisely these things, while Hillary has pledged to do just the opposite.
One immediately apparent priority is the urgency of appointing high quality Supreme Court justices and other federal judges. With the Supreme Court vacancy resulting from the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the fundamental balance of the High Court is now urgently at stake. Remaining on the Court are four (sometimes inconsistent) conservatives appointed by Republicans, and four almost uniformly consistent liberals appointed by Democrats.
Besides replacing Scalia, the next President will surely have more Supreme Court appointments. Ultra-Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by President Clinton, is now 83 and not in good health. Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan, is now 80. Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer will be 78 in a week or so. That would make nearly half the Supreme Court (4 out of 9) to be appointed by the next President. Those appointments will determine the direction of the Supreme Court for decades.
At stake are fundamental Constitutional rights, and the rule of law. One is the Second Amendment and your right to own guns for self-defense of yourself and your family, confirmed in 2008 in the landmark decision of District of Columbia v. Heller. That case was the result of decades of fierce debate across the country about what the Second Amendment means. One Supreme Court appointment by a President Hillary Clinton and that landmark precedent would be overturned by a liberal majority which considers the Second Amendment dispensable.
Freedom of Religion, which used to be well recognized and protected by the federal courts, is now under attack by the liberal/left. Also now under assault is once hallowed Freedom of Speech, safeguarded most recently by a 5-4 ruling in the 2010 landmark decision of Citizens United v. FEC. That case confirmed and protected the right of grassroots conservatives to join together in corporate form to raise money to participate in public debate. But overturning that case has become a cause célèbre on the Left, endorsed by Hillary Clinton, because so-called liberals think corporate interests should not be free to participate in public debate.
The Supreme Court’s majority opinion in the case was much better reasoned, arguing that the Constitution’s Free Speech guarantee protects the freedom to speak, because more speech can only add to the discussion with new facts and perspectives, which the public is free to accept or reject. Interfering to try to equalize speech would only end up counterproductively and arbitrarily restricting the freedom of speech the Constitution protects, with no objective guide as to any good accomplished.
Trump recognizes that his duty as President is to appoint judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the other federal courts, who understand that their responsibility is to apply the law as written, not to rewrite the law in accordance with their own view of justice and good policy. That is essential to uphold the rule of law, protect our Constitutional rights as written, and enforce our democracy and government by the people.
Justice Scalia was a historic leader of precisely that vision of judicial duty. If he is replaced by a political judge who sees judicial duty as enforcing the political views of the party that appointed him or her, that will shift the fundamental balance of the court from a slight majority of Republican appointees who think like Scalia to Democrat appointees who think their job is to enforce Democratic Party and “Progressive” orthodoxy and philosophy, not the written and enacted law.
After eight years of federal judicial appointments by “Progressives,” who religiously believe in government power which they can only see as power to do good (and so have no tolerance for differing views), the fundamental concept of a free and independent judiciary to serve as a check and balance on doe-eyed office holders is urgently at stake. Otherwise, who will remain to enforce the law against Hillary/Obama Democrats?
Trump has clearly indicated he understands what needs to be done on this issue, proposing a list of possible Supreme Court replacements for Scalia, and other federal judicial appointments, that was very favorably viewed by Reagan conservatives. Progressive true believer Hillary, by contrast, has pledged to do just the opposite.
Part two in this series on this year’s presidential election will discuss tax reform and health policy reform to repeal and replace Obamacare. Part three will discuss energy deregulation freeing American producers to make America number one in global production of energy, including the fossil fuels of oil, natural gas and coal. That will complete a plan to restore booming American economic growth.
Part four will discuss restoring America’s world leading national defenses. That includes building Trump’s wall on the southern border, and enforcing immigration law in the interest of the American people and their physical safety, not the political interests of the Democratic Party. That will further contribute to restoring booming economic growth by protecting and restoring the jobs and wage and income growth of the American people.
