Back in April, during the sham Alvin Bragg hush money trial in New York, we speculated on the possible impact of Biden winning a second term on our institutions, like the Supreme Court. The idea of Biden being able to fill the reliably Conservative seats on the bench long held by Justices Alito and Thomas, both currently in their early seventies, was clearly a nightmare scenario for Republicans and Conservatives. Now it’s time to look at the reverse—the impact of Trump winning reelection in November along with flipping the Senate red so that he can get his potential nominees confirmed.
Through Mitch McConnell’s shelving of the Merrick Garland nomination to the Supreme Court in the final year of the Obama administration, it ultimately kept the Scalia seat in Conservative hands until Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. In retrospect, can you imagine Clinton having won and Garland—after seeing his lawless tenure as Biden’s Attorney General—sitting on the bench with a lifetime appointment? This was clearly a bullet dodged.
Back in April, Justice Sotomayor faced calls for her retirement from hacks like former MSDNC, we mean MSNBC, hosts like Mehdi Hassan writing for The Guardian, before the end of Biden’s first term. Democrats want to avoid a repeat of what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who refused to step down, turning her seat on the bench from blue to red. Did Justices Alito and Thomas (especially Thomas who has been under constant attack from Democrat activists for decades) stay on the bench during Biden’s term in office to deny him the opportunity to appoint their replacements? A good question that can be asked after a Biden defeat in November.
Trump’s Potential Legacy Influence on the Supreme Court
Should he be reelected in November, Trump will likely have the opportunity to nominate the replacements for Justices Alito and Thomas when they choose to retire. The Supreme Court would be an almost indestructible bulwark against any encroachment from the left, no matter who inhabits the White House and which party controls Congress, especially the Senate.
If Trump wins in November, with five sitting Supreme Court Justices (if he ends up nominating replacements for Justices Alito and Thomas after having previously nominated Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barret during his first term), possibly six (if Sotomayor leaves the bench), or even seven seats (if Chief Justice Roberts chooses to retire before the end of a potential Trump second term), Trump will have a lasting impact going far beyond his leaving office on January 20, 2029. With all the handwringing by Democrats since last Thursday’s debate debacle, have they failed to look past the real significance of Biden’s historic meltdown? On the Sunday morning public affairs programs on the broadcast and cable networks this weekend, not one of the Biden surrogates mentioned this.
By effectively handing Trump the presidency, Democrats have virtually guaranteed a Conservative president selecting up to four more justices to the Supreme Court over the next four years and providing a right-leaning majority on the bench that would last for generations. Think about the policy ramifications this presents for the future of our republic: A real check on government overreach that the left has abused through the Supreme Court for over forty years. It would be glorious.
Likewise glorious would be the titanic meltdown expected among Democrats, as the Supreme Court would remain the only major institution within our government that is not dominated by the left. With too much of the power of the Senate already shifted over to the Supreme Court (Roe v. Wade, among many other rulings), and with a majority of the left’s agenda rejected by most Americans, Democrats must be absolutely terrified of a reliably Conservative SCOTUS that will not legislate a progressive agenda from the bench. Good!
The loss of the Supreme Court as a tool with which to bash Conservatives and invent laws that never would have survived the legislative process is just too much emotional baggage for most Democrats to bear. Remember, we’re dealing with today’s Democrats here; they don’t want any check on their seizing of power found nowhere in the Constitution.
A good example of the importance of having a Conservative majority on the bench is the recent Chevron vs. The Natural Resources Defense Council ruling that pulls back on governmental agency authority that is not expressly spelled out, which has led to the massive expansion of the administrative state that we have today. Of course, all Liberal Justices were against this ruling, and all Conservative Justices were in favor. Elections have consequences, right, Mr. Obama?
Expect the ongoing gnashing of teeth, empty threats of packing the Court, and the smearing of Conservative Justices to continue into perpetuity. It’s what Democrats do when they want a complete institutional lock on their ideology and don’t get their way.
Richard Truesdell is a former consumer electronics retail executive and automotive travel photojournalist. In the last 25 years, he has visited more than 35 countries on six continents. A former high school history teacher with a BA in Political Science from Waynesburg University, he is a lifelong Conservative moderate who has turned his thoughts and keyboard to political commentary and popular culture. A cross-section of his writings can be found here.
Keith Lehmann is a retired consumer electronics industry executive who has written extensively on technology, transportation, and international travel. Living in Southern California for over fifty years, he has first-hand exposure to societal and cultural happenings of the left and submits decidedly realism-based, Conservative viewpoints, much of which can be found on his Substack.
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