Can Conservatives Trust Trump On Judges?

A group of conservatives hope to inspire Republicans wary of voting for party nominee Donald Trump to support him based on his potential to change the Supreme Court, and change the U.S. judicial system for decades. “[T]hey insist, against all evidence, that his judicial nominations are to be trusted,” writes Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic. “This is folly.” Friedersdorf cites Ilya Somin, a libertarian legal scholar, who wrote in the Washington Post, “We don’t yet know what the full contours of a Trumpist judicial philosophy might be. But they are likely to include sweeping executive power (so the party’s Great Leader will not be hamstrung by constraints on his power), a narrow view of freedom of speech (so he can intimidate critics with libel suits and administrative harassment), tight restrictions on civil liberties (making it easier to, among other things, round up and deport many millions of undocumented immigrants), and weakening constitutional property rights (so that the government can have a free rein transferring property to its cronies in the business community).” That has left some stalwart conservatives, including editor of The American Conservative Rod Dreher, to pen phrases such as: “Trump may not care about our issues, but that also means he doesn’t care to fight against them.” But planning on apathy is “highly unpersuasive,” Friederdorf writes. “Better to deny him the White House.”