Trump’s SCOTUS Choice
Under ordinary circumstances, President Trump’s choice for the U.S. Supreme Court seat formerly held by Antonin Scalia would have no trouble receiving Senate confirmation.
But, of course, we are not anywhere close to “ordinary” circumstances politically. So while Neil Gorsuch likely will be confirmed, it’s not going to be easy, and it certainly will not be pretty.
To be clear, Gorsuch is not only qualified to be on the High Court, he’s an excellent choice. He is a conservative justice on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. He was educated at Harvard and Oxford, he’s only 49, and he’s highly thought of.
But Democrats are still angry — in fact, they’ve gone crazy — over what Republicans did to former President Obama’s pick to replace Scalia months ago. Obama, you will recall, nominated Judge Merrick Garland, who also was eminently qualified to sit on the High Court.
But Republicans — in a fit of spite, hate and political arrogance — shut down the confirmation process for Garland, arguing that the sitting president — Obama — had no right to make the choice. The GOP wanted, it said, to wait until the presidential election results were in.
Well, they’re in, and Mr. Trump won, so he gets to choose this Supreme Court justice and perhaps others down the road. And Democrats — those seething, crazed Dems who are out for revenge — likely will delay and try to derail Gorsuch. Eventually, they will fail because Republicans could well invoke the so-called “nuclear option” in the Senate, which would allow them to eliminate the use of a filibuster against Supreme Court nominees.
But the ordeal Gorsuch is likely to endure before confirmation is simply another manifestation of our broken and dysfunctional political system and of the hatred that engulfs it from all sides. Mr. Trump has generated much of that hatred with his recent executive orders involving immigrants and the building of that wall on our Southern border. He’s driving those who hate him into a frenzy — perhaps frenzied enough to try to sabotage Gorsuch, who happens to be an outstanding choice for the court.