Surprise opinion by Gorsuch, a Trump-picked judge, resounds politically
Neil Gorsuch in 2017 in the White House Rose Garden. Credit: AFP via Getty Images / Brendan Smialowski
Presidents and political parties cannot always rely on their favorite judges for ideological or policy "victories." For President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, this became especially clear Monday when the Supreme Court chose to protect gay and transgender people from workplace discrimination. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who Trump nominated, wrote the majority opinion.
Trump reacted without the vitriol he usually displays when someone or something frustrates his side of the red-state, blue-state divide. "A very powerful decision, actually," he called the 6-3 ruling. He's been using the phrase "very strong" a lot lately, perhaps to offset suspicions of weakness.
Even as he carried out all manner of measures aimed to please the political right, such as a ban on transgender troops in the military, Trump never signaled much personal interest in frustrating gay rights. His stances seem to be all business, rather than based in any belief about religion or culture.
The Gorsuch decision figures to be popular outside Trump's voter base, which would have nowhere to go except the GOP in the November election. Last month the largest national LGBTQ rights organization, the Human Rights Campaign, endorsed Joe Biden, who as vice president in 2012 declared support for legalizing same-sex marriage ahead of President Barack Obama.
Democrats underscore the urgency of winning the White House for the sake of controlling possible Supreme Court nominations. Ironically, any satisfaction with the court under Chief Justice John Roberts in the next few months could briefly dampen Democratic adrenaline.
Intentionally or not, the top court on Monday also passed up another chance to stir anger among progressives. The justices announced they would not hear any of 10 Second Amendment cases they were mulling. Some observers took this as a message to gun-rights advocates that they cannot rely on the court to kill gun-control laws. Sometimes the public gets a reminder that it is the job of Congress and state legislatures, not the judiciary, to enact and repeal laws.
Still, there are more hot-button cases to come from the conservative-leaning court, particularly on abortion, voting rights and Obamacare.
Roberts, a Republican who also voted for the new gay rights assertion, has brushed back the Trump camp before. One year ago, he found that the administration's justifications for pushing a controversial citizenship question into the 2020 census were too contrived to pass legal muster.
Five years ago, the issue of same-sex marriage also defied the usual left-right divide. The high court upheld that practice in a 5-4 ruling. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy — the Republican Gorsuch succeeded — wrote that majority opinion.
Gorsuch, Trump’s first appointee, might become a target of disappointment from the right. In this case he acted as a kind of "swing" vote as Kennedy did before him.
But Gorsuch doesn't have to care about that. He has a lifetime term, so there is no risk to his status. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's most recent addition to the court, voted with those who proved on this occasion to be a conservative minority. Predictably, the court's four Democratic-appointed judges coalesced with Gorsuch this time.
In Trump's Washington, any glimmer of cross-partisan agreement stands out as newsworthy.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
