A few years before I was born, a very long time ago, we lost the Supreme Court. It had defied Franklin Roosevelt, and blocked parts of the New Deal, but its defiance didn’t last long. Roosevelt failed in his 1937 attempt to pack the court. That failure effectively put an end to his New Deal improvisations, but the Court got the message, and soon adapted itself to the new political reality. It would no longer stand in the way of the expansion of the federal government. For 80 years it stood by while the constitutional limits on federal power were ignored, even ridiculed. This all culminated when the Court, and Chief Justice Roberts, gave its blessing to Obamacare in 2012.
Then things began to change. Gorsuch replaced Scalia in 2017, but that left Roberts as the swing vote. What tipped the scales were Kavanaugh in 2018, and Barrett in 2020. These were Trump appointments, but the real credit goes to Leonard Leo, and the Federalist Society.
As a candidate in 2016 Trump was, at first, flippant about who he might put on the Court. He even suggested his sister might make a fine Supreme Court Justice. This attitude horrified conservatives. We remembered George W, Bush, and his ridiculous appointment of Harriet Miers, his Deputy Chief of Staff. She was forced to withdraw, but the lesson was learned. Presidents could make really stupid appointments.
Trump was impulsive, and capable of getting it into his head that someone like Judge Judy belonged on the court. We asked ourselves, what were the chances that he would appoint real constitutional conservatives? It all came to a head with the death of Justice Scalia.
Trump was smart enough to realize that there were a lot of traditional conservatives who were very reluctant to vote for him. When Leanard Leo and the Federalist Society offered him a deal, he took it. He agreed that he would only nominate candidates who had been vetted, and recommended, by the Federalist Society. Trump made that deal, and as a result a critical bloc of voters supported him. He kept his end, and we got three outstanding conservatives as a result.
The Federalist Society is dedicated to, of all things, federalism! When the time comes, and these Federalist Society Justices are asked to rule on the epitome of federalism – Article V – we can hope they will be sympathetic.
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