Trump Supreme Court

The Trump Supreme Court depends on a good analysis of candidates in order to avoid making a mistake. Donald Trump wants to appoint judges like Antonin Scalia, and has said so publicly. But some of the judges given to Trump by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society fall far short of that standard, and could even be future liberals if appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Abortion

Which of the candidates ruled for the pro-abortion side, or cited pro-abortion rulings favorably?

Judge Steven Colloton is not pro-life

Judge Colloton is not pro-life, and has ruled twice in favor of the pro-abortion side.

In a long-running case from South Dakota, Judge Colloton refused to join Judge Gruender's decision in favor of a pro-life South Dakota law. Planned Parenthood Minn. v. Rounds, 686 F.3d 889 (8th Cir. 2012). Instead, Colloton wrote a concurrence that basically gutted the value of the pro-life South Dakota law in two ways, while purportedly concurring with the outcome.

The South Dakota law required abortionists to disclose to patients that there is a higher rate of suicide by women who had abortions than those who do not. This is an indisputable fact that should be disclosed.

Judge Colloton, however, insisted that abortionists should only have to disclose the connection between abortion and suicide that is reported in peer-reviewed medical journals, which of course are controlled by pro-aborts. So that ends up being nothing to disclose.

But that evisceration of the law was not even enough for Judge Colloton. He further said that an abortionist can supplement his disclosure with any opinion that the abortionist wants to provide about the issue in his "professional judgment." Of course, that's the same trick that the abortion industry has been using for decades, to have unlimited authority to tell and do to patients whatever they want.

In another abortion case before Judge Colloton, he joined a decision in favor of Planned Parenthood and against a pro-life Nebraska law. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland v. Heineman, 664 F.3d 716 (8th Cir. 2011).

Judge Bill Pryor

Judge Pryor cited favorably a pro-abortion decision that is used in many pro-abortion rulings:

• Cf. Singleton v. Wulff, 428 U.S. 106, 114, 96 S. Ct. 2868, 2874, 49 L. Ed. 2d 826 (1976) (holding that doctors in abortion clinics had standing to challenge a city ordinance that impinged on a woman's right to an abortion) - quoted favorably by Judge Bill Pryor in Camp Legal Def. Fund, Inc. v. City of Atlanta, 451 F.3d 1257, 1272 (11th Cir. 2006).

Religion

Issues under the Establishment Clause or Free Exercise Clause are highly correlated with a judge's views on abortion. For example, almost never does a judge rule against a Christian display or expression, but then rule in favor of a pro-life position.

These candidates have ruled against the Christian side in issues of religion:

<list and explanation>

Pro-Religion decisions

• Busch v. Marple Newtown Sch. Dist., 567 F.3d 89 (3d Cir. 2009) (Hardiman, J., dissenting to object to the censorship by an elementary public school of reading from the Bible as part of a "show and tell" activity)
• Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, 723 F.3d 1114 (10th Cir. 2013) (Tymkovich, J.) (an en banc decision in favor of Hobby Lobby)

Bill Pryor

Judge Bill Pryor has repeatedly ruled or acted against Christians:

• in Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, 664 F.3d 865 (11th Cir. 2011) (Pryor, J., concurring), joined a decision against a student counselor who was being compelled by a state school to enroll in remediation because her Christian faith led her to question several assertions in the homosexual agenda.
• was the prosecutor in asserting judicial supremacy against Justice Roy Moore in pursuing the liberal agenda to remove him from the Alabama Supreme Court for displaying the Ten Commandments. Specifically, in 2003 Pryor demanded the removal of Justice Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court for defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Judicial Building. Pryor himself prosecuted Moore for allegedly violating the Canons of Judicial Ethics by keeping the Ten Commandments on display.

Marine court-martialed for Bible verse

• Margaret Ryan wrote the decision that court-martialed a Marine for displaying a Bible verse.

Second Amendment

Support for the Second Amendment is greater than support for pro-life, but the issues are highly correlated as both concern the inherent right of self-defense. These candidates have ruled against the Second Amendment in some way:

Pro-Second Amendment

Judge Hardiman has written two pro-Second Amendment dissents on the Third Circuit

• Drake v. Filko, 724 F.3d 426 (3d Cir. 2013) (Hardiman, J., dissenting)
• Binderup v. AG of United States, 836 F.3d 336 (3d Cir. 2016) (has interpreted D.C. v. Heller to hold that any law barring persons with Second Amendment rights from possessing lawful firearms in the home even for self-defense is per se unconstitutional, such that no scrutiny is applicable)

The full list of candidates

candidate	current position	age	confirmation vote	comments
Keith Blackwell	Georgia supreme court	41		probably too young at this time to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
Charles T. Canady	Florida supreme court	62		former congressman who coined the expression "partial-birth abortion," in sponsoring the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
Steven Colloton	US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit	53		ruled twice in favor of the pro-abortion side (see above)
Allison Eid	Colorado Supreme Court	51		former clerk for Clarence Thomas
Neil Gorsuch	US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit	49
Raymond Gruender	US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit	53
Thomas Hardiman	US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit	51
Raymond Kethledge	US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit	50 (in Dec.)
Joan Larsen	Michigan Supreme Court	47		faculty member at a liberal law school, the University of Michigan
Sen. Mike Lee	Senator R-Utah
Thomas Lee	Utah Supreme Court
Edward Mansfield	Iowa Supreme Court			wrote a controversial decision in favor of a right to fire a woman for being sexually attracted to her
Federico Moreno	Southern District of Florida			unlikely pick from the position of a trial rather than appellate court judge
William Pryor	US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit	54	53-45, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski abstaining	prosecuted Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore for an alleged ethics violation due to having the Ten Commandments on display
Margaret Ryan	US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces	52		she wrote the recent decision that court-martialed a Marine for having a Bible verse displayed on her desk, which suggests a hostility or insensitivity by Ryan to religious beliefs
David Stras	Minnesota Supreme Court	42		probably too young at this time to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, he is a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas
Diane Sykes	US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit	59 (in Dec.)	70-27	ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood in blocking an Indiana law that attempted to cut off funding to it under the Medicaid law. Planned Parenthood of Ind., Inc. v. Comm'r of the Ind. State Dep't of Health, 699 F.3d 962 (7th Cir. 2012).
Amul Thapar	Eastern District of Kentucky			unlikely pick from the position of a trial rather than appellate court judge
Timothy Tymkovich	US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit	60		held in favor of religious liberty in Hobby Lobby decision
Don Willett	Texas Supreme Court	50		outspokenly anti-Trump at one point
Robert Young	Michigan Supreme Court	66 (in Jan.)