Not Tired Yet
Been a busy day but I just want to offer a few quick thoughts on why Gorsuch is a great nominee, and why he’ll be confirmed:
– He was confirmed unanimously. This is the major reason I think he’ll be confirmed. But I do expect hemming and hawing.
– He’s young (49), which means he’ll be on the court for a long time.
– He’s aligned with Scalia on a lot of issues.
– With the above, he is very much an originalist type, which is very important.
This won’t be Trump’s only pick. Not to be morbid but Ginsberg is rather old, Kennedy is almost as old, and Breyer is right behind him. Assuming a Trump re-election, they would be 91, 88, and 86, respectively. The man has a real chance to have a lasting, transformative impact on the court — and that could be great for the nation. If we ended up with four or five men like Gorsuch (or Scalia, or Thomas) on the bench the court would be back to relying on the rule of law and the meaning of the law, not interpreting into law things that don’t exist.
I’m very stoked, eleven days into the presidency. There have been a few minor glitches but nothing stands out as a big problem and there’s certainly nothing worth the pants-shitting hysterics I’m seeing in the media.