Trump made the conservative dream of remaking the federal judiciary true
Trump made the conservative dream of remaking the federal judiciary true
With an unusually high number of appointments in federal courts, Trump could profoundly remake large parts of American life
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/18/trump-federal-courts-appointments-republicans?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVUy0xODEyMTg%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&CMP=GTUS_email
The presidency of Donald Trump has had very mixed results for those of his supporters who hoped he would deliver conservative policy priorities. Trump’s scandals and high-octane promotion of white identity politics have sucked up all the available oxygen. The only major legislative achievement Republicans can point to after two years is an unpopular tax reform package.
Meanwhile conservatives have been forced into reality-warping mental gymnastics to reconcile their support for the president with their claim to be standard-bearers of personal morality and law and order. Although a dedicated base still sticks by Trump, the midterms showed that Republicans have paid a price in credibility and electability as a result. Their ability to deliver conservative policies by winning elections has been reduced accordingly.
Yet there is one area in which Trump has made the long-held dreams of his conservative supporters come true: the remaking of the federal judiciary. By making an unusually high number of appointments to federal courts, Trump could profoundly remake large parts of American life even if the Republicans lose every post-Trump presidential election for the next 20 years.
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Their inability to win electoral mandates to overturn these popular policies explains why the GOP is turning to judicial means to do so instead, but it also raises the question of what would happen the day after they were successful. The spectacular failure of the last Congress to pass a replacement to Obamacare shows that the Republican party is bereft of constructive ideas in this area even as it seeks to tear down the existing policy that provides healthcare to millions through its lawsuit. Even while in government the party was stuck in an oppositional mode and unable to offer a vision of its own.
It is possible to envisage a nightmarish future in which a deeply conservative judiciary rolls back the “administrative state” on the basis of fringe legal ideas, and Democrats are unable to have laws protecting the basic interests of hundreds of millions of Americans upheld in court despite overwhelming popular support. Even as Republicans suffered at the ballot box as a result, welfare, healthcare, abortion rights and environmental protections might all be rolled back without a democratic mandate. Such a stark shift in the philosophy of the judiciary would do severe damage to American democracy, and sever the Republican party from any claim to uphold the popular interest, with severe electoral consequences sure to follow.
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