Correcting the record on Trump and Supreme court nominations:
Ted Cruz said on Feb 14 on ‘This Week’ with George Stephanopolous:
“the one person he (Trump) has suggested that would make a good justice is his sister. She is a hard-core pro-abortion liberal judge. And he said she would make a terrific justice.”
Cruz supporters object to Ted Cruz being called “Lyin Ted”. But this is another example of Cruz spreading misinformation.
Cruz said this one day after the Fed 13th debate in South Carolina. A debate in which Donald Trump was asked who he would nominate in place of Anthony Scalia. Trump mentioned two names: Diane Sykes and Bill Prior, both solid conservative judges.
Cruz was at that debate. Cruz heard Trump say this. But he misrepresented Trump’s position anyway.
This false attack was picked up and circulated by many anti-Trump outlets and Cruz supporters.
Cruz was referring to what Trump said on August 26, 2015 in a Bloomberg interview. Trump was specifically asked about Supreme Court nominees: “How about your sister?”
Trump said: “I think she would be phenomenal, I think she would be one of the best, but frankly I think she is — we’ll have to rule that out now, at least temporarily.”
Trump did not volunteer his sister. He was asked directly about her. What is he supposed to say? “She’s awful”. “She’s a terrible judge”. Call her a ‘hard-core pro-abortion liberal judge’ as Cruz did?
No, he was complimentary. Of his sister. His family member. Someone he loves. But we are supposed to believe according to Cruz and others that his positive comments were because of his sister’s “hard core liberalism” and not because of his family connection?
Trump was asked about it again on Feb 14th by George Stephanopolous and said:
“There’s some great people out there. But my sister obviously would not be the right person. It’s a conflict of interest for me.”
Of course it is a conflict of interest.
Also, the charge that Trump’s sister is a “hard-core pro-abortion liberal judge” appears to be spurious.
Matthew Stiegler, a lawyer and blogger who is familiar with Trump’s sisters work said:
“Judge Barry is a moderate-conservative Republican centrist. She is widely respected and thoroughly mainstream.”
A law review study also ranked Judge Barry as a centrist.
The criticism of Judge Barry comes from a partial-birth abortion ban she ruled against. It appears Judge Barry’s decision was mainly based on precedents set by the Supreme court.
Stiegler echoed these sentiments writing that Judge Barry’s ruling was “based on logic and precedent, not policy. If this opinion makes Judge Barry a radical extremist, then so is 98 percent of the federal judiciary.”
Conservative stalwart judge Samual Alito also ruled against the partial birth abortion ban for the same reasons.
Judges are not policy makers. They are often limited by precedent and the rule of law, even if they hold personal views opposite of their rulings.
So what are Judge Barry’s personal views on abortion?
Nobody really knows. Trump said in a press conference on Feb 15th “I don’t even know what her views are.” Trump’s sister declined to answer questions about her personal views at her 1999 Senate confirmation hearing. There seems to be no record of her views anywhere. She is private and she does not do interviews.
But Trump said he would not nominate her, so what her views are is a mute point. Except to demonstrate how exaggerated the characterizations are by Cruz and anti-Trump media.
More recently, Trump released a list of 11 potential SCOTUS nominations.
He sought the counsel of conservative law groups The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.
John Malcolm, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage foundation, called Trump’s selections “excellent”.
Senator Chuck Grassley, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman called the list “impressive”.
Law professor Steve Vladeck of the American University Washington College of Law said: “These are 11 well-regarded conservative judges with consistent credentials; folks who I think could reasonably be expected to try and follow in Justice Scalia’s footsteps.”
Further, all 11 judges on the list are reasonably young. Trump’s sister is 78, which would make her the oldest nominee ever. President’s typically choose younger judges such as the ones on Trump’s list so the party can retain that seat for longer. Another reason why the charge about Trump nominating his sister is far-fetched.
“But we don’t know if he will actually nominate these judges, there is no guarantee. We don’t know if we can trust him.”
It would make no sense for Trump to nominate a liberal judge. He is not Obama whose instincts draw him hard left at virtually every fork in the road. Trump is a pragmatist. A businessman. Someone who is interested in the bottom line and making things work. Liberal justices are caught up in theory, feelings, ideology and political correctness. That is the opposite of Trump.
Unless Trump’s entire campaign has been one giant episode of Punk’d and Ashton Kutcher plans to pop out on inauguration day and jump around like a banshee.
No, the concerns over Trump SCOTUS nominations are ill-founded, not well thought out, propaganda by his opponents and hysteria amongst some conservatives.
Even if people still have doubts, there can be no doubt who Hillary Clinton would nominate. She would nominate a judge in line with Kagen, Sotomeyer, Ginsberg.
A judge like that would tip the power of the supreme court to the left. They already ruled in favor of gay marriage. They already reinterpreted Obamacare to make it legal. What more would they do with a liberal majority? The 2nd amendment is at stake. Free speech rights are at stake. Religious liberty. All things liberals constantly try to chip away at.
On the other hand, if the court grows more conservative, those things could be protected and strengthened. Abortion could be limited or even outlawed saving the lives of millions of human beings.
The stakes are huge. Based on the issue of judicial nominations alone conservatives should unite to stop Hillary from turning the SCOTUS into a left-wing activist committee liberals use to ramrod their agenda.
Do not let that happen. For you, for your kids, grandkids, for your country. There is a better way. It starts with electing Donald Trump.
God bless America and may God bless Donald Trump.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/08/meet-donald-trumps-sister-the-tough-federal-judge-ted-cruz-called-a-radical-pro-abortion-extremist/
http://www.nytimes.com/live/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-dies-at-79/trump-says-he-was-kidding-when-he-suggested-his-sister-for-the-court/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/16/ted-cruz/cruz-trump-thinks-his-sister-hardcore-pro-abortion/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/politics/donald-trump-supreme-court-nominees/
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/merrick-garland-age-supreme-court/