In the biggest announcement of the Supreme Court this week, Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring, effective July 31, 2018. This follows an amazing month of Supreme Court opinions that have been firmly grounded in upholding the rule of law and fairly applying the Constitution. Just this week, the Supreme Court announced decisions in NIFLA, Trump v. Hawaii, and Janus that showcased the Supreme Court at its best—actually doing their job and rejecting political activism.
[Related: Trump sticking with list of 25 potential Supreme Court justices to replace Anthony Kennedy]
The margin of victory for the Constitution in these cases were all by a 5-4 majority (notably with Kennedy siding with the Supreme Court’s conservative cadre). This signaled to many evangelicals that perhaps Kennedy was exiting by going back to his conservative roots and intending for his legacy to read more like Scalia than his more left-leaning tendencies in the past few years with decisions such as the same-sex marriage opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
This announcement has encouraged Trump’s base and conservative families and evangelical leaders all over the nation. I had the amazing privilege of walking into Dr. James Dobson’s office and personally sharing with him the news. He told me that this is an answer to prayer for millions of American families, and I agree—with the opportunity now for President Trump to nominate a second Gorsuch, the likelihood of reversing bad constitutional outcomes like Obergefell and even Roe v. Wade is now very real.
Every American who understands the rule of law and that our Constitution was originally designed to preserve and protect the unalienable rights of every human being made in the image of God, including the unborn, is one huge step closer to being realized again in America.
[Read: Anthony Kennedy’s resignation letter to Trump]
Jenna Ellis (@jennaellisJDFI) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is Director of Public Policy at the James Dobson Family Institute. She is a constitutional law attorney, radio host, and the author of The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution. She can be reached at [email protected].
