If you’re like me, I was initially excited when I read that Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) was going to oppose all further nominations to the Federal judiciary by the Trump Administration. But then I ran across a clarification in the Washington Examiner:
Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said Thursday he would block all of President Trump’s judicial nominees until the administration reverses its decision to rescind a policy that de-prioritized the enforcement of federal marijuana laws.
Gardner, whose home state legalized the use and possession of marijuana in the wake of that federal policy, said on the Senate floor he was not happy with the surprise decision, especially after both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and candidate Donald Trump said they would not interfere with states on this issue.
Which is quite the come-down for me. While the marijuana issue is certainly important, the quality of our Federal judiciary is far more important. If Gardner had simply said that the quality of the nominees has been wanting and he would no longer vote for the confirmation of future nominees unless they met the highest standards, then he would have won some qualified praise from myself. I can only say qualified because he’s presumably already voted for those who have already been confirmed.
But as the Examiner’s report indicates, this is nothing more than a political maneuver. It may put Sessions’ nuts in a grinder, which of course I will applaud, but it also implicitly opens Gardner up for counter-maneuvers which may force him to collapse his own maneuvers. After all, this is not based on some moral imperative, the bulwark of successful politics, but simply to serve his own political needs, aka survival (Colorado has legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, and is a position with a great deal of popular support).
And, given the importance of a highly competent and fair-minded judiciary, it should be a moral imperative.
I don’t expect Gardner’s position to hold up over time. Either the Trump Administration will back down in order to continue to sandbag the judiciary, or they’ll find a way to force Gardner to repudiate this position – perhaps by denying aid to Colorado in the face of some disaster.
Gardner is up for re-election in 2020.
