Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Any Republican President Would Have Appointed Neil Gorsuch

I have no objections to President Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.


Conservatives who are heaping praise upon Trump for decision should ask themselves this question. Would any of the other 16 Republican presidential hopefuls have appointed Gorsuch or someone with equivalent credentials? And if conservatives are honest with themselves the answer would be a resounding yes. So I don't think what Trump did here was particularly exceptional.


Of course, we have no idea how Gorsuch will vote or rule. The other night I saw the The Dick Cavett Show. It was recorded in June 1969 and Cavett was interviewing James J. Kilpatrick. While Kilpatrick was "enraptured" with President Nixon's appointment of Warren Burger to the Court he did caution there was no guarantee how he would rule. No doubt Kilpatrick was disappointed with Burger when he voted with the majority on Roe v. Wade a mere 3½ years later. Kilpatrick further noted that he was disappointed with President Eisenhower's appointments of Earl Warren and William Brennan, Jr. Indeed, Kilpatrick lambasted Brennan for writing an article for Playboy Magazine. If Kilpatrick was offended with Brennan for writing for Playboy, I wonder how he would have felt about Trump for posing on the cover of Playboy. But I digress.


Sure conservatives like Gorsuch now. But who can say that Gorsuch won't uphold a controversial law signed into law by a Democratic President? Did anyone cast John Roberts in that role when President Bush appointed him to the Court in 2005? Hardly.


Simply put conservatives might celebrate Gorsuch. But one day they could damn him and, dare I say, damn Trump for appointing him.

1 comment:

  1. "Conservatives who are heaping praise upon Trump for decision should ask themselves this question. Would any of the other 16 Republican presidential hopefuls have appointed Gorsuch or someone with equivalent credentials? "

    With Kasich, Jeb, Graham , Pataki, and a few others, we would likely have been presented with another David Souter.

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