“The confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court represents a huge political victory for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who gambled on blocking the nomination of Merrick Garland in the hopes of a [Republican] electoral victory” in which a Republican president would nominate a conservative to the court.
“It may also have been an equally huge loss for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who ignored increasing calls for her retirement during the Obama administration to avoid the prospect of the flipping of her seat from a liberal to a conservative member,” under a conservative president.
“Various advocates suggested for years that Ginsburg might be staying too long on the Court. Those suggestions became more and more blunt as Obama’s second term progressed. What began as polite suggestions that it ‘might be time to leave’ became more and more pointed, if not panicked, in the last two years of the Obama term.”
Justice Ginsberg is 84. If Mr. Trump gets a second 4-year term, she will be 90 when his second term ends. Though she remains intellectually active, and fully engaged on the Court, it would be nothing short of amazing if she remains on the court that long.
“Many justices time their retirements with an eye to who would appoint their replacements. Some have admitted that they try to engineer an appointment by one party or the other to preserve the balance of the Court.
“Had Ginsburg retired early in the second Obama term, it is likely that her seat would have been filled even by a Republican-controlled Senate…” Though Antonin Scalia’s seat would still have been blocked by the Senate, hers would have been filled by an Obama nominee.
“Now Ginsburg’s gamble on Hillary Clinton being elected could have sweeping impact on [the liberal] precedent that she played a major role in creating.” And with the elimination of the filibuster for court nominees during the Obama administration by a democratically controlled Senate, and with the change from 60 votes to a mere majority, the democrats have been their own worst enemy. Say what they want about Mr. Trump, they are responsible for the most seismic change in the U.S. Federal Courts including the Supreme Court in American history. They themselves were the ones that have orchestrated the prophetic shift to a conservative court that will eventually cram religious views down their own throats. It will now haunt them for many decades. Coupled with Ginsberg’s gamble, they may have unintentionally staged a powerfully conservative court. Without the filibuster, Republicans have no excuse to compromise on a moderate. There is nothing standing in the way to appointing someone who is openly opposed to liberal and leftist causes, let alone prevent the deepening of the combination of church and state in American politics. There is no plausible deniability based on the need to get to 60 votes to confirm a nominee since they now only need a majority. The changes have truly come back around against them.
If Ginsberg resigns during the Trump Administration, the court will inevitably shift powerfully to the right. The future could not be more evident already the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch, and the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to take the place of swing vote Justice Kennedy.
“From the use of race in college admissions to abortion to police powers, the [conservatives] could achieve objectives in this administration that have eluded Republican presidents for over six decades. It is not clear if Ginsberg was betting more heavily on herself or Hillary, but many may conclude that the bet was reckless given the stakes on the table. For a few years on the Court, Ginsburg risked Trump ‘running the table’ and the odds now favor precisely such a result.”
Nothing is more prescient prophetically when considering how a conservative court could act with a religiously motivated administration in play. If enough pressure is placed on American law by its own citizens who are exasperated by gigantic natural disasters. The legal right of conscience will not be respected by the courts and true Sabbath keepers will come under severe pressure to compromise their faith.
“Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they [leading men] think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest-day higher, and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really those who thus regard them who are themselves disloyal, because they are trampling under foot the Sabbath originated in Eden.” Maranatha, page 176.