"Judge Garland Is Well to the Left of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy:" That Is All we Need to Know

The New York Times tells us today that Judge Merrick Garland Is “well to the Left" of Justice Kennedy. President Obama has thrown down the gauntlet. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland is his nominee to the Supreme Court. Judge Garland is eminently qualified on paper: Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, partner at Arnold & Porter, Assistant Attorney General, appellate judge for 18 years. Judge Robert Bork in 1987 was also eminently qualified for the Court. However he was “Borked; i.e. demonized to deny the conservative a seat on the bench.” Judge Garland is not politically qualified. The Republicans control the Senate. They will not let President Obama change the balance on the Court. President Obama called Judge Garland a moderate. The mainstream media chimed in echo the Obama Line: The New York Times yesterday called him “the ideal, moderate Supreme Court nominee” with “a solidly centrist voting record. The Los Angeles Times hailed him yesterday as a “centrist” as did USA Today. The LA Times today proclaims his “record of restraint, not a of activism.” The Supreme Court reporter Linda Greenhouse places Judge Garland in the “constitutional mainstream.” She says he is one of the “country’s most respected and experienced federal judges.” He is a moderate and centrist only by the standards of the progressive left. He is only moderate in the sense that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a “moderate liberal,” as defined by President Clinton. Justice Ginsburg is the most consistently liberal Justice on the Court, unrestrained the words of the Constitution or of statutes. She famously said in Cairo during the Arab Spring of 2012 as the Islamic radicals were headed to victory: “I would not look to the US Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012.” She doesn’t feel bound by the words of the U.S. Constitution, often looking to foreign law for guidance. I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn to those who believe Judge Garland is a moderate. Judge Garland acknowledged in his remarks as he stood by President Obama’s side his “commitment to follow the law, not make it.” Judge him not though by his words, but by his decisions. The picture is one of consistent liberal dogma. He believes in government, the power of government, the good of government. He is, as is most of the present Supreme Court, the eastern liberal establishment. Today’s New York Times article about the nomination quotes political scientists as saying “Judge Garland is well to the left of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy,” today’s swing vote. If Judge Garland is confirmed, Justice Kennedy’s views and opinions will be irrelevant. A 5 block liberal hegemony will rewrite the Constitution, without the restrain of Justice Kennedy. That is what the nomination is about. That is why the Republicans must continue to him confirmation, at least until the November election. He consistently defers to agency’s extensions of their power. He has consistently sided with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rather than management. He always sides with environmentalists when they sue the EPA, but against industry. One of the major constitutional issues facing Congress is the power of the federal government under the Commerce Clause to regulate isolated wetlands or endangered species. If construed to the extent the Obama Administration has pushed the limits, the effect will be to give land use authority to the federal government over almost all the lands in the United States. He interpreted the Commerce Clause in 2003 to allow the government to protect an isolated species with no economic value. In clerking for Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. he clerked for and learned from one of the most liberal Supreme Court justices of the 20th Century. He is the game changer on the Supreme Court, the final act of transformation by President Obama. His appointment is second in significance only to the election of the next President. It is more important than the election of the next Senate. He will use the Court to judicially legislate. He will join the axis of Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan, and Sotomayor in redefining the Constitution to give more power to the Government and less power to the people. The Judge Garland vote, or non-vote, is a vote on the future of the United States.