Trump’s the one who crossed a line

In ordinary times, it would be hard to defend Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’s comments on Donald Trump. Supreme Court justices should not be in the habit of commenting on elections at all, much less the qualities of presidential candidates. But I suggest it has become apparent to many Americans that we are not living in ordinary times.

Although I don’t propose to defend everything that Ginsburg said, I think she is probably one of those Americans. This makes her extraordinary intervention at least understandable. She has certainly not lost her mind.

So suppose we try to see matters from her perspective, bearing in mind this involves some guesswork. Ginsburg ’s critics say she crossed a line. From her point of view, however, the lines that really matter were already crossed by Trump, as well as Senate Republicans.

Why the Senate? Ginsburg plainly cannot understand how Republicans can get away with not acting on President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, federal appellate judge Merrick Garland. Although few question his qualifications, Congress is about to go home for almost two months, and no one seems to care. But this means that if Trump wins, that Supreme Court nomination becomes his to claim. This is a new low for the Senate that Ginsburg properly condemns.

For Ginsburg and many others, the primary issue is that Trump’s rhetoric and positions challenge core American constitutional values. We should keep in mind that many liberals, conservatives and libertarians are united in being concerned with Trump’s candidacy on this score. In the legal world there is surely a broad concern, reflected in Ginsburg ’s outspokenness, that a Trump presidency might mortally wound the Constitution. Ginsburg perhaps felt it was her civic duty to address these unprecedented circumstances.

It’s my sense that as the election goes forward, more Americans will find themselves in Ginsburg ’s camp, so to speak: Although they normally don’t concern themselves with political matters, this year they’ll feel compelled to speak out and take a stand.