Originally published June 29, 2022
https://queensjewishlink.com/index.php/opinion/6864-trump-s-legacy-week
Victories abound for life, religion, and self-defense rights came down from the Supreme Court over the past week, reaffirming and protecting freedom for at least one more generation. While Democrats, the media, and Never Trumpers are trying to distract from the real issues of the nation with the irrelevant and wasteful January 6 committee, the true legacy of President Donald Trump is sitting in those three big chairs in the Marble Palace down in D.C.
Obviously, the biggest headlines are going to the Dobbs decision, which overturned the heinously-decided and morally-abhorrent Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. The decision that came was nearly identical to the leaked draft that attempted to threaten one of the concurring votes into changing their minds. In a sheer act of bravery, however, the conservative justices did not waver, even after a man was arrested outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house with a gun and zip ties. They held their ground, and made history.
Whether or not Trump is a true conservative who shares a similar judicial philosophy with his nominees, he kept his promise to his voters in 2016 when he chose people who would read the Constitution as written, not as they want it to be read. “Well, if we put another two, or perhaps three justices on, [overturning Roe v. Wade] is really going to be happening, that will happen,” said Trump on the debate stage in 2016. “And that will happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life Justices on the Court.” Promise made, promise kept.
Yet the Dobbs decision was not the only major victory this week. In Maine, a law that allowed the state to not give school vouchers based on if the school was religious was struck down, a big win for school choice advocates. In New York, the law that said that the state can determine if someone deserves to exercise their Second Amendment right to carry arms was overturned, changing nine states’ “May Issue” license laws into “Shall Issue” laws; it was the biggest gun rights decision since Heller in 2008. In Washington, the Court ruled that a football coach was allowed to kneel in prayer on school grounds, a phenomenal shift in freedom to exercise religion.
These are the dividends that all Americans, whether they supported Trump or not, are receiving because of those who did vote for Trump back in 2016. Even if you despise the idea of Roe being overturned, the fact is that allowing judicial activists to decide the law, as opposed to the legislature, is a terrible precedent. This is what Roe did. From the Dobb’s decision: “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”
Consider the alternative, and a Hillary Clinton presidency nominated two or three Justices to the Supreme Court (it’s possible that Anthony Kennedy would not have retired during a Democrat presidency). There’s no need to speculate, because the three hardcore leftwing Justices’ dissents to the various decisions are available for anyone to read. For Dobbs, the dissent did not take into account the Constitution; rather, they opined on the notion that this decision will make women “second class citizens” if abortion isn’t federalized. In the case of the Washington coach kneeling, Justice Sotomayor claimed that he should not be allowed to kneel in prayer because the students who may witness it are “particularly vulnerable and deserving of protection.” One should ask whether Sotomayor would say the same about the influence of Pride month and Drag Queen story hour. And no one should forget that the Leftists in the Supreme Court would have allowed OSHA to completely exceed its Congressional authority to mandate vaccination for every employee in the nation. That’s how close we came to complete judicial tyranny.
The Never Trumpers, however many remain, are quickly claiming that this is not Trump’s victory. Leading the charge is Kevin Williamson writing for National Review in a column simply titled, “This Is Not Donald Trump’s Victory.” In it, he ridiculously compares Trump to a lucky lottery winner and says that “Trump’s role in this could have been performed by a reasonably well-trained monkey.” He gives credit to President George W. Bush for nominating Justice Alito, and President George H.W. Bush for nominating Justice Clarence Thomas, both great nominations. But he takes for granted that Justices nominated by Republicans have hit as much as they’ve missed. Justices Roberts, Souter, Kennedy, Rehnquist, and O’Connor were all nominated by Republicans, and conservative law scholars have few nice things to say about any of them. Even Justice Gorsuch, Trump’s first pick, has made conservatives unhappy with some of his decisions, like expanding Title IX to include transgender people.
This was Trump’s legacy week. He deserves all the credit for these decisions, as do his supporters from 2016 (an award that I personally cannot claim). Anyone who thinks that the Constitution of the United States is something to be protected should thank him as well, even if you don’t like him.
