“Another scary thought? Form a mental image of a Trump Supreme Court justice. Trump has already provided a glimpse of that nightmare. Examine his frightening list of right-wing court nominees. Install a Trump White House and say farewell to civil liberties, voting rights, consumer rights and reproductive rights.”
— Colbert I. King, Oct. 1, 2016
“This court has already undermined basic rights we all believed we enjoy as Americans — the right to strong unions that bargain collectively, one person one vote principles, redistricting, and regarding the right of women to make their own health care decisions. The stakes for nominating a replacement could not be higher at any moment in our history.”
— NAACP, June 27
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is the subject of renewed liberal anger because two years ago he didn’t allow a vote on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, to fill the seat of the deceased Antonin Scalia. McConnell, to the consternation of weeping and wailing Democrats, left the privilege of filling the vacancy to the next president, who turned out to be Donald Trump. And President Trump promptly gave us Neil M. Gorsuch. Now, with the retirement of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Trump has the chance, which he certainly will take, to nominate a more conservative ideologue to the high court.
Now to the question: Should McConnell be credited with strengthening the hold of a right-wing majority on the high court? No, say I.
That honor — or from, my point of view, blame — goes to those citizens who did not vote for a presidential candidate in 2016. They, not McConnell, are responsible for handing over the Supreme Court to Trump.
