Recent Supreme Court decisions show it can be hard for presidents to dictate its direction – By Michael Scherer (Washington Post) / June 18 2020
President Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden have both made shaping the Supreme Court’s agenda central to their campaign pitches, with Biden promising to appoint the first black woman and someone who embraces abortion rights to the bench, while Trump has warned of an end to conservative governance if Biden has his way.
© Jeff Chiu/AP Young immigrants and their supporters rally outside the Supreme Court recently in advance of the DACA case.
But a series of liberal decisions by the conservative-led Supreme Court this week is showcasing the shakiness of such promises, in an era when candidates of both parties are making increasingly explicit pledges to name justices who will faithfully carry out their agenda.
Two Republican-appointed members of the court, including Trump’s first pick, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., have made clear that their opinions will not always be predictable when it comes to issues important to Republicans. They each joined with liberal justices to defeat Trump administration priorities this week.
The court has also refused to take up cases for the next term that had been championed by conservatives, including cases on gun rights and California’s sanctuary cities law.
These twists have deeply frustrated conservatives. “The left and the right are playing to a different set of rules,” said Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, a conservative religious group, after the Gorsuch ruling on Monday. “They seem to be able to appoint people who largely if not universally hew to the party line. On the right it feels sometimes that at best you are batting .500 sometimes.”
Continue to article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/recent-supreme-court-decisions-show-it-can-be-hard-for-presidents-to-dictate-its-direction/ar-BB15GvEM
