Joe Biden Exploited His Son's Death Again
Iran's Nightmares
Restore Order and Crush the Campus Jihadist Thugs
Leftist Reporters Pretend They're Not Partisan News Squashers
The Problem Is Academia
Mounting Debt Accumulation Can’t Go On Forever. It Won’t.
Is Arizona Turning Blue? The Latest Voter Registration Numbers Tell a Different Story.
Washington Should Clip Qatar’s Media Wing
The Most Disturbing Part of It
Inept Microsoft is Compromising National Security
Leftist Activists Said 'Believe All Women' Didn’t Apply to Me
Biden Fails Moral Leadership Test in Handling Anti-Semitic Campus Protests
Sanctuary Cities Defund the Police to Pay for Illegal Immigration
The Election, the Debt, and our Future
Despite Plenty of Pitfalls, Biden Doubles Down on Off Shore Wind Farms
OPINION

President Trump Has Opportunity To Shape Federal Judiciary For A Generation

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

“Ability is nothing without opportunity” - Napoleon Bonaparte

President Donald Trump, in only eight months in office, has delivered a series of social conservative policy and personnel victories. He also promised during the campaign to appoint Constitutionalist judges, and with the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Supreme Court confirmation in the first 100 days since 1881, and his federal judiciary nominations have also delivered on that promise. 

Advertisement

Social conservatives who voted overwhelmingly for the President last November are extremely pleased with the progress that has been made so far, including the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch, the appointment of the most conservative Cabinet in U.S. history, the Executive Order reinstating President Reagan’s Mexico City Policy to ensure that federal taxpayer dollars do not subsidize abortion across the globe, and his signing of legislation that allows states to restrict grant funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

The success of the Trump administration in a very short window of time is only the beginning. Before 2017 is done, the President and conservatives in Congress have the opportunity to reverse the Johnson Amendment and provide tax relief for American families. 

But, perhaps the opportunity that has the potential to bear the most fruit for religious conservatives, is the vast number of federal judiciary branch vacancies that President Trump will fill over the next several months. 

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the federal judiciary has 144 total vacancies that President Trump, with approval from the U.S. Senate, can fill with appointees in the vein of Justice Gorsuch and the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Advertisement

Through appointments of federal judges who embrace a Constitutionally sound judicial philosophy, President Trump has the opportunity to reshape the federal judiciary for an entire generation in a manner that upholds religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, the rule of law, and the Constitution. 

Unfortunately, Democrats are creating a logjam in the U.S. Senate led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The President has nominated over 20 judges to serve in the lower federal courts, and so far only a few have been confirmed. 

Democrats are attempting to thwart the will of the American people by blocking highly qualified judges who will follow the Constitution, and instead leaving Obama appointees to continue to advance their left-wing agenda from the federal bench. 

Republican leaders in the Senate must put an end to the Democrats obstruction by adopting Senator Jim Lankford’s proposal to limit debate on the floor to less than eight hours for each nominee so that President Trump’s nominees can begin the work that the American people voted for last November.

This obstruction by Senate Democrats is unprecedented in modern American political history. The millions of evangelical and conservative Catholic voters who rebelled against federal judicial overreach, and voted for Trump largely based on his promise to appoint judges who would not legislate from the bench, are watching Democrats intently. These voters will once again be a force at the ballot box in 2018 and Senate Democrats in red states would be wise to listen to their constituents and force their leadership to abandon the strategy of obstruction.

Advertisement

The Constitution, the rule of law, and the heart of religious freedom in America won the day last November with the election of Donald Trump as President, and now with the promise of President Trump in charge of hundreds of federal judicial appointments, there is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen the founding principles of our Republic.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos