Let's hope the reports Donald Trump has his nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia down to two choices – Judge William H. Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and Judge Diane Sykes of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – represent nothing more than "fake news."
I don't know much about Sykes. Therefore, I have no reason to oppose her nomination, though I would much prefer someone whose record is clearly "Scalia-like." Sen. Mike Lee comes to mind.
But I can tell you without equivocation that Pryor is an establishment hack – more in the John Roberts mode than Scalia.
Let's go back to 2003 when, as Alabama state attorney general, he prosecuted the state's Supreme Court chief justice, Judge Roy Moore, for following the dictates of his conscience in upholding the inspiration of the Ten Commandments, the very foundation of our moral law, thus removing him from office.
The charge was violating judicial ethics, an accusation from a radical-left organization.
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Moore had broken no laws in the state of Alabama or the United States of America. He had faithfully upheld his oath to the constitutions or Alabama and the U.S. Instead, he had defied an illegal injunction by a federal judge, Myron Thompson, to remove a Ten Commandments display.
Submitting to such a demand would not be following the rule of law; it would have been be succumbing to the rule of men.
Justice Roy Moore ran for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court pledging to display the Ten Commandments. The people of Alabama elected him to that office. He carried out his campaign pledge and followed the law of the sovereign state of Alabama in doing so.
This was not an issue of a First Amendment violation, as Thompson claimed. The First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion and prohibits the state from imposing an official church. The Ten Commandments represent the very basis of Western civilization. They are revered equally by believing Jews, Christians and even some Muslims. It is a unifying document, not a divisive one. If our society cannot agree that the very basis of all our laws should be read, honored and obeyed, then our society will not last much longer. It won't deserve to last much longer.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was constitutional.
Do I need to remind anyone that the U.S. Supreme Court chamber itself has a display of the Ten Commandments on the ceiling? There's also one on the outside of the building. The U.S. Capitol chamber boasts a frieze of Moses. Yet, William Pryor prosecuted Judge Roy Moore for this "offense" – thus removing him from the high office of Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, his duly elected position.
Does anyone, Donald Trump included, think Antonin Scalia would hold that Judge Roy Moore should have been removed from office for displaying the Ten Commandments?
If not, then we should agree that the man who prosecuted Roy Moore for defying that illegal federal court order as a judicial ethics violation is hardly worthy of replacing him on the high court.
I supported Donald Trump for the presidency.
I have high hopes for what he can achieve in the next four years for the country.
It would be a very inauspicious way to begin his promising new administration by rewarding William Pryor, a gutless, establishment, self-serving, ambitious toady, with an appointment to replace the late, great Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
This nomination will set the tone for the future of the Trump administration. He needs to get this one right.
There's at least one exciting nominee on the list of candidates Trump's offered to the American people during his bid for the presidency. His name is Sen. Mike Lee. He is eminently qualified. He is a solid textualist and originalist when it comes to the interpretation of the Constitution. He's a solid conservative and well-regarded by his colleagues. He stands as a great successor to Scalia.
William Pryor would be an insult to his memory.
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