If November had gone the way most election experts thought it would, this moment in time would have been very different. Conservatives and pro-lifers would have been bemoaning some leftist liberal that President Hillary Clinton nominated to replace the late Justice Scalia. He or she would likely have had some long, radical paper trail supporting abortion. Conservatives would have rightly been drowning their sorrows.
But November went differently, and we now have a president who fulfilled his campaign promise to nominate someone in likes of Justice Scalia. And while no one ever knows for sure how a nominee will vote when he or she get to the Supreme Court, past decisions are good indications of how a judge thinks on a philosophical and legal level, balancing arguments against the U.S. Constitution.
Some pro-lifers and conservatives balked this week when Judge Neil Gorsuch said he would have “walked out the door” if Trump had asked him to overturn Roe v. Wade. Any fifth-grader would say that was the right answer – the separation of powers is crucial to having a working government but built-in checks and balances.
And what about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s, D-Calif., new legal term “super precedent?” Well, it doesn’t even exist. She was trying to make a point that Gorsuch needs to uphold Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton because it is a legal precedent and that other cases have since confirmed it.
Nice try, Ms. Feinstein, but not only is “super precedent” a made-up word, but precedent has been overruled many times by the Supreme Court. Just because a case has been confirmed by other cases that came after it does not mean that it is infallible.
Going back and looking at Gorsuch’s opinions and his book, it is clear that he values life at all stages. In his book on assisted suicide and euthanasia, he said that life is “intrinsically valuable and that intentional killing is always wrong.” He also sided with Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor in religious freedom cases.
Gorsuch is an excellent pick for the Supreme Court by President Trump. Conservatives have been burned in the past by Supreme Court nominees from Republican presidents, so it is understandable that they would be cautious and even skeptical. But everyone knows by now that Trump is known for breaking the mold of previous presidents, upending a broken government, and came to office because he wasn’t a regular politician.
His Supreme Court pick is a good one, and the Senate should confirm Gorsuch immediately.
Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is president of Students for Life of America.
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