Court’s nominations will affect Americans for generations

If you think the Supreme Court is a problem now, with blockbuster 5-4 decisions going against faith, family and freedom nearly every year, imagine a 7-2 majority against everything you hold dear, for generations. That is what we face this November.

The recent trajectory of the high court has been hostile to Biblical values. In June it even overruled a Texas law designed to make abortion clinics safer for women. On abortion, and so many other issues, rulings are based on partisanship and power. It was never meant to be this way.

There are two competing approaches to what Chief Justice William Rehnquist called “the very delicate responsibility of judicial review.” One is limited, where, as Rehnquist said, judges see their role as interpreting an instrument framed by the people in a detached and objective way. This is the vision of the founders, and why Alexander Hamilton called the judiciary the “least dangerous branch.” Judges are meant to be umpires, as Chief Justice Roberts noted in his confirmation hearings. They simply call the balls and strikes; they are never meant to pick up the bat and swing.

The other approach is expansive, where the Supreme Court is seen as the voice and conscience of contemporary society. This is the vision of many on the modern political left, who believe judges should play a particular role in solving society’s problems. 

In addition to Justice Scalia’s vacant seat, it is very likely the next president will have more vacancies to fill. By the end of the next president’s term, five justices will be over 70 years old; three will be in their 80s.

Consider the impact of even one change. If one more justice had voted with Thomas in recent years, gay marriage would not have been imposed on the nation (Obergefell v. Hodges) and Obamacare would be a distant memory (NFIB v. Sebelius).

Fifty years is a long time to cast your memory back to the dramatic liberal activism of the Warren Court, or even the Roe court a decade later, both of which made decisions that involved vast social changes.

What vast social changes would such a court make today? Would the court abolish home schooling (such as in Germany)? Or that children being indoctrinated by religious “bigot” parents are victims of abuse? Or that excluding women from ordination violates the Equal Protection Clause? Or that anti-LGBT “hate speech” is criminally punishable?

Think of all the crazy leftist policies cropping up at colleges and universities, and then imagine them being imposed on the nation by a runaway court. These scenarios give us a view of what a high court appointed by a liberal president may do—unrestrained by a conservative bloc.

A good guess can be made of what a Clinton Court would look like, and we can imagine what such a court would do. Is a Trump Court as easily imagined? Many commentators argue that it couldn’t be worse than Clinton’s, but I believe more can be said in its favor from a conservative viewpoint.

There are two distinctly different directions the Supreme Court could go—and only one appears to hold any hope that the rights of Christians and other religious people will be protected. As we approach November, it would be tragic if we were to underestimate the threat that a leftist, revolution-minded Supreme Court poses.

For the sake of our country, Americans must choose wisely.