Among the most enduring Trump memes has been the “But Gorsuch” defense of the administration.
The argument goes like this: Sure, the president can be uncouth and un-conservative, but he delivered a superb Supreme Court justice named Neil Gorsuch. The high court tips to the right, and that’s enough of a justification for blind partisanship.
Except that no, no, it’s not that simple. Once confirmed, justices occasionally go rogue or, ahem, co-equal.
It’s their prerogative as members of an independent branch of government, after all, and it’s the latest headache for Republicans. The Supreme Court just invalidated part of a federal law that required mandatory deportation of immigrants convicted of certain crimes. To the chagrin of Trump, Gorsuch joined with the liberal 5-4 majority.
Legal minds can diagnose whether this was a right or wrong decision. But from the political perspective, two questions and one conclusion:
While no one doubts that the Supreme Court weighs heavily on the presidential ballot, it shouldn’t be the only deciding factor. Once confirmed, no one knows what a justice will do. In other words, the binary choice presented to the electorate through the judicial lens is foggy at best. Disappointed by other shortcomings like the failure to repeal Obamacare for instance, conservative voters lukewarm on Trump will wonder, was it worth mortgaging their vote for a disagreeable candidate?
That lingering doubt might last until this November. The Supreme Court continues to be one of the chief Republican appeals for conservatives. Help us keep the Senate, they say, and the GOP will deliver another justice to fortify the court — maybe enough of a majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. But now, it’s clear that Gorsuch has a legal mind of his own and won’t just toe any man’s line but his own. After that diminished expectation, will depression set in among the conservative base ahead of the midterms?
Predicting the political fallout this many months from the midterms is difficult. But one conclusion is immediately and absolutely true: Gorsuch is not the Trump rubber stamp that the Left feared and the Right desired.
