Title : The Democratic Delusion
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The Democratic Delusion
There are probably very few persons alive and awake at this time who aren’t aware that Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has passed away. The emphasis this places on the importance of the presidential election cannot be overstated. In short, President Trump has the opportunity to replace a left-liberal justice with a right-conservative one. I doubt he’s going to let it pass him by, nor should he.
But hearken to the most recent emission by the odious Senator Charles Schumer (D, NY):
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted his own statement that "[t]he American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice."Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” Schumer added, using same phrase that McConnell employed denying federal judge Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing after the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.
Oh, really? I have but one question: Why?
The Senate deferred action on the Garland nomination because at that time, the White House was in Democrat hands while the Senate was majority-Republican. It was an appropriate exercise of discretion in a split-control situation. The election of Hillary Clinton would have made it impossible to avoid a straight up-or-down Senate vote on Merrick Garland. The loss of the Senate majority to the Democrats would have had the same effect. But the election of Donald Trump and the GOP’s retention of the Senate majority would – and did – put the Garland nomination in a different light, one where the Senate could reasonably allow the incoming president to put forward a different nominee.
Today, there is no split-control situation. The White House and the Senate are both Republican-dominated. It is reasonable for the president to submit a nominee to the Senate for its advice and consent. It is also reasonable for the Senate to act or not act on such a nomination in its own good time. What President Trump will do, and what Majority Leader McConnell will do, we shall soon see.
But on a larger and more important point, Schumer’s nonsense about “the American people” deserving “a voice” in the selection of the nominee is contrary to the Constitutional design. Such a “voice” is expressed through their selections of Senators and President. With both those institutions in Republican hands, it is wholly within reason that the president should put forward the nominee of his choice, and leave what follows to the Senate.
Schumer’s demand is a restatement of the democratic delusion: the notion that everything about the federal government “should” be decided by a majority vote of the citizenry. The Founding Fathers wanted buffers between the highest federal officials and the public to keep majority passions at bay, thus dampening the influence of the events of the moment and the machinations of demagogues. The Constitution explicitly – and quite justly – separated the Supreme Court from popular decision making, just as it originally separated the Senate and the presidency from them.
Yes, the design has been tampered with: in my opinion, completely unwisely. But what remains still insulates the Supreme Court from “democratic” passions and the events of the moment. As we speak here of the body that rules on the Constitutionality of the laws proposed and passed by the elected legislators of these United States, that is exactly as it should be.
In closing: Note that the Democrats have never had a problem with using the courts – or the Court – to rule against majority sentiment when that was the Democrats’ preference. On many occasions a Democrat-dominated Supreme Court has ruled in a fashion that contradicted the opinion that prevailed among American citizens. Miranda v. Arizona is one notable example; another is Kelo v. New London. Should the Left ever again acquire control of the Court, we may be sure that such decisions will again be issued in such circumstances.
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