Could Justice Barrett and the Court Surprise Us?

The Senate’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as a justice of the Supreme Court reminds us of President Trump’s decision to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The opponents, in their predictions of war and mayhem and riots on the Arab street, were almost Schumerian. In the event, though, what happened was the opposite. Mr. Trump’s sticking by his Jerusalem promise has ushered in a new burst of peace making.Could that be what follows from his, and Senator McConnell’s, success in delivering the conservative majority he promised for the court? It would be imprudent to discount entirely the possibility that it will end in tears. It could also be imprudent, though, to rule out a more optimistic outcome — in which a conservative majority on the court enables us now to resolve some of the feuds that have festered for years.It’s not just the Affordable Care Act, on which the Democrats directed so much of their fury over the course of Justice Barrett’s confirmation hearing. It’s not just the question of abortion, on which much of the country is still bitterly divided, though Roe is nearing 50 years. Nor the battle over the Second Amendment, which has divided our states. It is suddenly possible to imagine the court breaking all sorts of stalemates.Maybe that will turn out to be a good thing for both sides. It could yet make clear to one side or the other that their hope no longer lies, if it ever did, with the court. Maybe that will force both sides to throw themselves with new vigor into the political, meaning, the legislative battles. It was, after all, really the political body, that is, the legislature, that the Founders saw as the logical solver over these hard questions.We understand that if the Democrats win the Senate, the Sheldon Whitehouses, Chuck Schumers, and Speaker Pelosis of the world are going to try to pack the court that the left can no longer control. Vice President Biden, having refused to say what he would do if Justice Barrett were confirmed, now proffers a plan to refer the matter to a commission, which is where ideas go to die. So maybe the court will surprise the Democrats. Just saying. Jerusalem isn’t the only city of miracles.

Could Justice Barrett and the Court Surprise Us?

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