Analysis: Trump court pick aimed at cementing legacy
WASHINGTON — With fanfare befitting the nation’s pre-eminent showman, President Donald Trump on Monday poured accelerant on his campaign to shift Washington’s balance of power toward conservatives and remake the federal judiciary for generations to come.
Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is the latest milestone in what has been an 18-month, top-to-bottom remaking the federal bench, the fulfilment of more than three decades of emergent conservative legal jurisprudence, and a watershed moment for the president and his legacy. Trump’s tax cuts will fade with time, regulations erased by this president can be rewritten by the next one, spats with foreign leaders can be patched up, but judicial appointments — and their court rulings — endure for decades.
“When the political winds shift, Congress never leaves policy issues alone,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has served as the legislative architect of Trump’s remaking of the courts. “When we did comprehensive tax reform 30 years ago, it lasted four years. What I want to do is make a lasting contribution to the country.
“And by appointing and confirming these highly intelligent nominees to the courts who are in their late 40s or early 50s, I believe, working in conjunction with the administration, we’re making a generational change in our country that will be repeated over and over and over down through the years,” he added.