the list<\/a>, is that of Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). \u00a0(Incidentally, Senator Lee\u2019s brother, Thomas Lee, a justice of the Utah Supreme Court, is also on the list.) \u00a0Indeed, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has described Senator Lee this very day as the best choice that President Trump could make.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why would Mike Lee be an excellent choice? \u00a0For one thing, he\u2019s a serious, reflective, principled conservative. \u00a0He wouldn\u2019t be likely to drift leftward as many previous Republican Supreme Court nominees have done (e.g., Anthony Kennedy himself, former Justice David Souter, and, most famously, Dwight Eisenhower\u2019s nominee, Chief Justice Earl Warren). \u00a0For another, his vacated Senate seat would almost certainly go to another Utah conservative, so the Republicans would risk little in supporting his elevation to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also a practical reason to favor him: \u00a0Senators tend to defer to fellow members of their club in such circumstances. \u00a0If nothing else, on the unlikely chance that the Senate failed to confirm a Mike Lee nomination, his colleagues would then be obliged to work with him for the indefinite future, which would be, to say the least of it, awkward. \u00a0In other words, Mike Lee would almost certainly be confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there are reasons that Senator Lee might not make the cut. \u00a0President Trump might, for example, prefer to nominate a woman or minority to the Court, and Senator Lee is neither. \u00a0A Latter-day Saint would add religious diversity to SCOTUS, which is currently made up of five Roman Catholics, one justice who was raised Roman Catholic but currently attends an Episcopalian church, and three Jews. \u00a0But I haven\u2019t heard much clamor for including a Mormon on the court, nor even a great deal of noise about putting a Protestant there. \u00a0These are not favored minorities right now.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nominating a woman or a member of an ethnic minority, however, would certainly blunt some otherwise almost inevitable criticism against the Trump administration. \u00a0And then, too, speaking of awkwardness, Mike Lee conspicuously declined to support the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump \u2014 even after Mr. Trump received the nomination of the Republican Party. \u00a0And Mr. Trump is fairly well known for retaining personal grudges.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So we shall see.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But \u2014 for what little it\u2019s worth \u2014 I would enthusiastically support Mike Lee for the Supreme Court of the United States. \u00a0For that matter, I would also support his brother.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Newport Beach, California<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The departure of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the Supreme Court of the United States is big, big, big news. \u00a0 Whereas Neil Gorsuch\u2019s nomination to the Supreme Court promised, at best, to replace the great conservative justice Antonin Scalia with another conservative, thus maintaining the status quo, the replacement of the frequent swing-voter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>