Today’s Editors’ Choice

• Charles Krauthammer: Karma, Precedent and the Nuclear Option
• Jonah Goldberg: Meet the New Realism, Same as the Old Realism
• Byron York: Schiff Mum on What He Saw at White House

To view all of today’s opinion, click here.

Opinion in Brief

Charles Krauthammer: “A major reason these fights over Supreme Court nominations have become so bitter and unseemly is the stakes — the political stakes. The Supreme Court has become more than ever a superlegislature. From abortion to gay marriage, it has appropriated to itself the final word. It rules — and the normal democratic impulses, expressed through the elected branches, are henceforth stifled. Why have we had almost half a century of massive street demonstrations over abortion? Because the ballot box is not available. … In a democracy, what better embodiment of evolving norms can there be than elected representatives? By what logic are the norms of a vast and variegated people better reflected in nine appointed lawyers produced by exactly three law schools? If anything, the purpose of a constitutional court such as ours is to enforce old norms that have preserved both our vitality and our liberty for 230 years. How? By providing a rugged reliable frame within which the political churnings of each generation take place. The Gorsuch nomination is a bitter setback to the liberal project of using the courts to ratchet leftward the law and society. However, Gorsuch’s appointment simply preserves the court’s ideological balance of power. Wait for the next nomination. Having gratuitously forfeited the filibuster, Democrats will be facing the loss of the court for a generation. Condign punishment indeed.”