Trump and Judges
by Peter Spiliakos October 7, 2016 10:34 AM
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There is no reason to suspect that Trump knows or cares anything about the role the Supreme Court plays on abortion, religious liberty, or much of anything else. The path of least resistance for Trump would be to cut a deal with incoming Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to nominate a blank slate (who would turn out to be a liberal) and then get Senate approval through united support from the Democrats and the votes of whatever Senate Republicans wanted to stay in Trump’s good graces, or who secretly weren’t all that upset about a Supreme Court that is aggressively liberal on social issues.
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Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/440836/
The link doesn't work. But I'd point out the following:
1) There is no evidence or argument that Trump would actually prefer to take the path of least resistance. However, assuming that he does....
2) There is no guarantee that Schumer will become Majority Leader. If he does not, then the path of least resistance (under the above assumption) would be to go along with whomever
McConnell would prefer. Therefore, the election of Trump creates the possibility of nominating/confirming a conservative justice -- something that the election of Hillary Clinton does not offer because she really does care about those issues.
3) While nominating a liberal activist might be the "path of least resistance"on the
single issue of judges if Democrats control the Senate, it would also amount to a huge betrayal of the GOP and likely would mean he'd lose any support among Republicans in the House or Senate. That would leave him with no allies period, and likely create the path of
most resistance moving on to other issues.