Why We Ask: Our mission and operations are funded 100% by conservatives like you. Please help us continue to extend Liberty to the next generation and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

February 1, 2017

Trump Delivers on Supreme Court Nomination

Neil Gorsuch is an outstanding pick.

Donald Trump promised during his campaign for the presidency to nominate a constitutional conservative to the Supreme Court, and he did not disappoint. With the selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch, currently serving on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Mr. Trump delivered on yet another campaign promise. This fulfillment was particularly important for millions of conservative voters, as it was the deciding factor in their decision to pull the handle for Mr. Trump over his opponent. (What was her name again?)

Judge Gorsuch’s credentials are impressive by any standard: top undergraduate honors at Columbia, top law school honors at Harvard, top PhD honors at Oxford, and an unwavering history of originalist constitutional interpretations that would make the late, great jurist Antonin “Nino” Scalia proud. Gorsuch beat out a strong list of fellow contenders Mr. Trump had paraded before the public during his campaign for the White House, with the promise he would choose his nominee from among that list. And he did.

What does this nomination mean for America’s future? For starters, an immediate uphill battle. Within literally seconds after the president’s announcement, the statist juggernaut launched into full swing, with the usual suspects in the Senate immediately pulling the gloves off and lining up to deliver blows.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) soap-boxed that Democrats would oppose nominees who were not “bipartisan and mainstream.” Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) hissed lines from his dog-eared copy of the playbook: “I had hoped that President Trump would work in a bipartisan way to pick a mainstream nominee like Merrick Garland and bring the country together. Instead, he outsourced this process to far-Right interest groups. This is no way to treat a co-equal branch of government or to protect the independence of our federal judiciary.”

From this mummy’s wisdom, of course, we learn two pearls: 1) A judge who reads the plain language of the Constitution and interprets it accordingly is a choice of the “far-Right interest groups,” not the American public, who would rather see “living, breathing Constitution” patsies contort the law to whatever suits the Left; and 2) In the wake of their abject Election Day spanking, the Democrat leadership’s “new” course is to continue spewing the same bile and venom that helped its candidates so much back in November. How excitingly new and refreshing! Hey Dems, keep it up: America needs you to abandon even more seats in the midterms!

Since Schumer has pledged that Democrats will filibuster any Trump nominee of whom he does not approve, many have questioned if the only option available for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would be to invoke the “nuclear option.” There are other options for breaking the filibuster, including utilization of existing rules as proposed by our colleagues at The Heritage Foundation: “A majority may use Rule XIX (the two-speech rule) to shorten the amount of time members are able to filibuster. This rule prohibits any senator from giving more than two speeches on any one question during the same legislative day.” It is important to note that a “legislative day” is not confined to a 24-hour period but to whenever the Senate adjourns, which could potentially last for months, as it did in 1980. After all, senators have given their speeches — they may not speak again — and confirmation can be obtained by a simple majority vote.

Republicans could also load the Senate docket with legislative proposals, which, if delayed by filibuster, could wound Senate Democrats in their home states.

Oh, and for the record — on the subject of obstruction — recall these words from Barack Obama on the campaign trail for Hillary Clinton: “She knows that in this big, diverse country, democracy can’t work if all we’re about is trying to destroy somebody in the other party, if we demonize each other. If we block Supreme Court appointments — not because that’s how it’s supposed to work, but just because we didn’t win.”

However confirmation is achieved, a Justice Gorsuch means an end to the 4-4 split, an end to ideologically driven deadlocks arising in the wake of Justice Scalia’s departure and a return to juridical sanity on the High Court. Judge Gorsuch referred to Scalia as “a lion of the law,” also noting how much he misses him. He should: He has big shoes to fill. We are very optimistic, however. Echoing the same judicial philosophy and disarming manner as Nino consistently used with great impact, in accepting his nomination Judge Gorsuch humbly remarked, “A judge who likes every outcome he reaches is very likely a bad judge.” The implication is one all constitutionalists should understand: The outcome follows the law, not vice versa. And in this regard, Judge Gorsuch has been a reliably solid judge over a host of decisions before the Tenth Circuit, most notably in Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby. There the court struck down contraceptive mandates under ObamaCare — mandates that would have otherwise violated the religious free exercise rights of Hobby Lobby’s owners in lieu of the “rights” of its employees to have employer-funded contraceptives. The decision is one of many similar examples demonstrating to us that Judge Gorsuch gets it.

Conservatives across the nation are unified in declaring this selection an unequivocal win, because it’s a victory for Rule of Law. As Mark Alexander notes, “Despite how the Democrats and their Leftmedia echo chambers want to frame this debate, it is NOT a ‘Republican versus Democrat’ or ‘conservative versus liberal’ issue. This is a Rule of Law versus a rule of men issue, the terminus of the latter irrevocably being tyranny. Our Founders and Constitution prescribed that the specific role of Supreme Court Justices was and remains, to uphold Rule of Law in accordance with their oaths ‘to Support and Defend’ our Constitution. They are not a "despotic branch” whose jurists legislate by judicial diktat, as has been the case by statist Supreme Court jurists for the last 70 years.“

As Thomas Jefferson warned on judicial despotism, ”[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch.“

Indeed, President Trump continues building an administration that is tantamount to a Reagan revival. With this critical nomination, it’s now up to the Senate to hit this one over the wall.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.