Posted on 06/13/2023 8:45:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Ron DeSantis includes this exchange about the Supreme Court:
HH: Now in terms of the judges that you will bring to bear on this, former President Trump hit three home runs with his Supreme Court appointments. Are you going to make the same kind of pledge to the Republicans as you go around the country that your judges will be like the Trump judges?
RD: Well, actually, I would say we’ll do better than that. I mean, I respect the three appointees he did, but none of those three are at the same level of Justices Thomas and Justice Alito. I think they are the gold standard, and so my justices will be along the lines of a Sam Alito and a Clarence Thomas. And in Florida, I inherited a very liberal state supreme court, maybe the most liberal in the country, very activist. But I was able to replace three of the four liberals my first month in office with conservative justices. I’ve since been able to make a number of appointments since then. So we now have the most conservative state supreme court in the country. And so I think we have a really good track record on doing that. And in fact, two of my supreme court picks in my first year of office were elevated to the 11th Circuit by President Donald Trump.
(Emphasis added)
If anything, DeSantis’ answer is too respectful to Trump’s appointees. Neil Gorsuch, probably the best of the three, reached the bizarre conclusion that Congress, in 1964, banned employment discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgendered individuals. He reached the equally bizarre conclusion that much of Eastern Oklahoma belongs to Indian tribes for purposes of the Major Crimes Act.
Brett Kavanaugh, the worst of the three, is very far from a “home run.” I’m not sure he’s even an extra-base hit.
Kavanaugh does not vote consistently with Alito and Thomas in the tough cases. Instead, he’s apt to join the three liberal Justices.
He did so recently in two major cases. In the Alabama redistricting case, he joined the three libs and the Chief Justice to reject a plan that didn’t carve out a “safe” congressional district for a black to win. George Will attacks the decision here.
And in a recent environmental law case challenging the EPA’s regulatory authority, he broke with all five Republican-appointed Justices to disagree with their standard for limiting the scope of the Clean Water Act’s definition of wetlands. Here’s Hugh Hewitt on the subject.
When Trump ran for president in 2016, he criticized George W. Bush for appointing John Roberts to the court, and Ted Cruz for backing Roberts. It’s true that, in his present incarnation, Roberts is a disappointment to conservatives. But Roberts was a solidly conservative Justice for his first six years on the bench, and remained pretty reliable for several more years after his Obamacare ruling in 2012.
Kavanaugh has been on the Court for less than five years. He’s already voting as a center-right jurist, not a conservative.
There’s little doubt that if Trump were in DeSantis’ position and DeSantis in Trump’s, Trump would be ripping DeSantis over the Kavanaugh nomination. But I’m fine with the way DeSantis is playing this.
There’s nothing much to be gained by attacking Kavanaugh, who still garners sympathy from Republicans due to the vicious last-minute attacks Senate Democrats launched against him during the confirmation process. And Kavanaugh did vote with the four solid conservative Justices in the abortion case. (Let’s see what he does in the term-defining Harvard race-based preferences case.)
Thus, DeSantis’ answer to Hewitt is a good one. Rather than attacking one or more Trump appointee, it’s enough to inform voters that the three don’t measure up to “gold standard” Justices Thomas and Alito, and to tout the strong conservatism of the Florida Supreme Court justices he has appointed.
There is no “impossible FR purity test”.
It should be offensive, notwithstanding (and it is ironic already), to have RINOs demand purity of Trump while they ignore gross impurity out of the Uniparty at large.
Kavanaugh was part of the coverup of Vincent Foster’s death.
Given the makeup of the senate, how much better could be done?
Is hh still on the radio???
Mirengoff used to write for PowerLine Blog before he was canned for being an obvious Trump hater.
He is a disgusting lowlife and should not be taken seriously.
People like to bury the truth...Especially about the losers their own guys put forth.....
There are Purity tests on Free Republic.
If any judge has an opinion which certain Freepers disagree with, that judge is condemned as worthless.
It doesn’t matter what other opinions such a judge has issued. There is no sense of balance or proportion. A single deviation from any Freepers judgement, is enough to condemn such a judge as having been a wasted Supreme Court nomination.
I hate to be right about Kavenaugh but back in the day you all in here were fawning. I agree that in Trumps early presidency I wanted him to succeed getting his pick, but Kavenaugh was a bad guy. He lied to discredit the witness (who had to pee in the park that day) who clearly saw other cars than Vince Foster’s in the parking lot as well as sinister guys hanging around the car he saw. No one here seemed to give those facts much notice though they are in the depositions etc.
I guess you are glad to hear that Putin is planning to reduce the very high abortion rate in Russia. He needs more adult humans to send into the Ukraine meatgrinder. A very good reason to make sure more male babies are born.
No Supreme Court pick is ever a home run.
We have a lot of Freepers here who don't give their comments much thought..
Ike gave us Earl Freaking Warren.
Gorsuch was a good choice.
Kavanaugh was forced on him by Kennedy who would not retire if the choice was anybody but his protege’ Kavanaugh. In that case, a Democrat president might get to name Kennedy’s replacement and the risk was too great - so Trump agreed to appoint Kavanaugh.
The ONLY one he could be criticized for is ACB. She was the Turtle’s top choice and there is no doubt she is a huge improvement over Ruth Bader-Ginsburg. That said, she’s not great and yes, she and Kavanaugh did both lack the guts to hear the 2020 election cases.
Trump appointed one solid Strict Constructionist and two somewhat squishy constructionists. At least he didn’t appoint open and outright judicial activists which is more than can be said for Eisenhower or GHWB. Reagan did really well with Scalia but he also appointed the squishy Sandra Day O’Conner. Almost no Republican president has done as well with his judicial nominations as I’d like.
DeSantis should not have done this if he wants to be POTUS.
The only way DeSantis can be the R nominee is if Trump loses his ability to run due to a Jan 6th “insurrection” ruling that will surely go to the SCOTUS. Do you think the 6 conservative Justices will prefer DeSantis over the known Trump?
In a bizarre way, DeSantis really helped Trump with this dumb commentary.
We the people need to speak out against those "conservative" justices who rule as activists, instead of constitutionalist. Only then will they have have fear that their rulings may bring them down.
The President takes whatever the Senate gives him and McConnell picked those Judges.
Who turned pretty liberal in his later years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.