Allen Mendenhall: Trump’s Supreme Court

Tags: Political Theory, Legal System

02/03/2017 Allen Mendenhall Jeff Deist

Brutus, writing in The Antifederalist Papers, had this to say about judges:

There is no power above them, to control any of their decisions. There is no authority that can remove them, and they cannot be controlled by the laws of the legislature. In short, they are independent of the people, of the legislature, and of every power under heaven. Men placed in this situation will generally soon feel themselves independent of heaven itself.

Now Trump has announced his nominee for the Supreme Court. Here to explain everything from a libertarian perspective is Allen Mendenhall, a lawyer, PhD, and director of the Blackstone and Burke Center. How will Gorsuch likely rule on important issues, given what we know about him? Is he an activist, an authoritarian, an originalist, or a positivist? Is he too cozy with federal power, or does he show a libertarian Coloradan streak? And, if confirmed, will he occupy a "stolen" seat?

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