Responsibilities of president & the people

The importance of appointing a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be overstated. That person will influence decisions affecting key aspects of American life for a generation or more.

The importance of taking the election of a U.S. president seriously cannot be more apparent. President Donald Trump lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College and as a result is influencing the nation’s highest court through two appointments.

Talk about political gyrations. Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to replace conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February 2016. Garland’s nomination expired as Trump took office and the new president within a week nominated conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch, who won Senate approval months later.

With the retirement of Senior Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, Trump gets to nominate a second jurist. Monday evening he announced Judge Brett Kavanaugh from the U.S. District Court of Appeals as his choice.

While Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, often was a swing vote on the nine-member court, Kavanaugh is expected to be solidly conservative.

Thus, the president who was not elected by the will of the people, gets to tip the balance of the Supreme Court. No wonder protests and rallies, such as one in New Haven Tuesday, are happening around the country.

Much is at stake. The Affordable Care Act, which has brought health care to millions of Americans, is at risk. So, too, is gun violence prevention — though Congress has done precious little in that regard since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings five-and-a-half years ago. And a 45-year-old law, Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion with certain limits, could be in danger. All three come down to health care, protection and control.

We are concerned that Connecticut’s laws in support of health care access, gun control and reproductive rights, among others, could be endangered.

With the checks and balances of the three branches of government built into the Constitution, the Senate will hold hearings and vote on the president’s nomination to the court. The narrowly Republican- controlled Senate must examine Kavanaugh’s record and plumb his ability to separate personal beliefs from jurisprudence.

Also, they should explore the consequences of Kavanaugh’s writings on presidential immunity from criminal prosecution while in office. He worked on the Kenneth Starr investigation of then-President Bill Clinton. In a 2009 Minnesota Law Review article, Kavanaugh wrote: “Congress might consider a law exempting a President — while in office — from criminal prosecution and investigation, including from questioning by criminal prosecutors or defense counsel. Criminal investigations targeted at or revolving around a President are inevitably politicized by both their supporters and critics.”

In light of the ongoing Mueller investigation that vexes President Trump, Kavanaugh’s perspective is interesting.

It is President Trump’s responsibility this time to nominate a replacement for the Supreme Court. And it is the public’s responsibility to speak out on what matters.

The president who was not elected by the will of the people, gets to tip the balance of the Supreme Court.