01 July 2022
Trump’s Legacy
Sadly, in spite of his embarrassing and hopefully forgettable tenure as President, the Donald can indeed have a significant impact on American history. He selected three conservative, if not retrogressive, nominees for appointment to the Supreme Court. Not since the early years of Franklin Roosevelt’s term in office has a majority of the Court so persistently stood in the way of fulfillment of the Constitution’s promise in its preamble to promote the general welfare.
In particular, it has allowed any state unhealthily to restrict and even ban abortion; it has restricted any state from banning concealed firearms; it has prohibited the executive branch from taking measures to preserve a livable planet without specific authorization from a Congress beholden to special interests.
We are left only to speculate on other extreme interpretations of the original intent of the drafters of the Constitution 235 years ago. How can we believe that such enlightened men would not have anticipated that humanity would continue to progress beyond its contemporaneous levels of safety, health, gender equality, and other living standards?
The Constitution is not a straight-jacket, and Supreme Court justices are not prison guards. They are intelligent people who will recognize the incongruity of their Constitutional philosophy if they begin to feel the kind of pressure their predecessors experienced in 1937. That will also diminish the most harmful of Trump’s bequests to the Republic.
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