If Mitt Romney Is Our Next President, Who Would He Nominate For The Supreme Court?

CNN has recently published an article of possible Supreme Court nominees that Mitt Romney would pick if he became President. CNN claims that they were able to obtain an unofficial list of potential nominees based on a variety of sources. Mitt Romney has not publicly stated who he would name if he became President and this list complied by CNN could be nothing more than pure speculation by their sources.

Below is the list of potential Supreme Court  nominees: 

Paul Clement, former U.S. Solicitor General

Judge Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit

Judge Diane Sykes, 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Milwaukee

Sen. Mike Lee, Republican from Utah

Judge Steven Colloton, 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, works in Des Moines, Iowa

Judge Neil Gorsuch, 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Denver

Judge Jeffrey Sutton, 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, works in Columbus, Ohio

Judge Janice Rogers Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit

Judge Allyson Duncan, 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, works in Raleigh, North Carolina

All the issues that conservatives and Republican care about can be traced back our concern for the rule of law. If we fail to make the Constitution, our judicial system, criminal system, or our legislative system legal issues our top priority and concern as conservatives and Republicans, then we will not be able to be successful in fighting for life, economic liberty, national security, right to bear arms, health care, education or any other issue. As a result, this election is extremely important for conservatives of all stripes because who wins this election will have the chance to influence the make up of our Supreme Court for many years to come. 

By electing Mitt Romney, we will have the opportunity to put more conservative judges on the Supreme Court. Wee need a conservative majority not only to keep the liberals in the minority,  but we also need them in the event one or two justices decide side with the liberal justices, we still have a conservative majority.

The real question isn't between having Obama or Mitt Romney as our next president. The choice is easy. However, the important question is how much effort are you willing to put into this election make that choice a reality so that the issues you care about receive the proper attention it receives in our judicial system? 

Why I'm Fairly Confident ObamaCare Will Be Held Unconstitutional

With ObamaCare potentially coming before the United States Supreme Court as early as this fall, people are already wondering and debating how the Justices will rule on the constitutionality of Obama's health care plan. 

I am fairly confident that the ObamaCare will be held unconstitutional by a 5-4 vote. We can be fairly certain that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer will vote to uphold Obama's health care plan as constitutional. We also absolutely confident that Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and John Roberts will strike down the law as unconstitutional. 

The lone vote will probably come down to Judge Anthony Kennedy who will most likely vote against ObamaCare. How certain am I this will happen? Judge Kennedy gave us a sneak peak of how he might rule on ObamaCare based on how he ruled in the Supreme Court case Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn. 

If Kennedy remains consistent in his holding, he will strike down ObamaCare on basis that it violates the Commerce clause because the law makes an unproven assumption about people's choices in purchasing or not purchasing health insurance: 

A key provision of that 2010 law is the “individual mandate.” It requires most Americans to buy health insurance or face a hefty fine. Such an imposition on private health choices is based on an unproven assertion that everyone at some point will use a hospital emergency room. (The mandate also provides the major funding to achieve universal health care.)

But in writing for the court’s majority in Monday’s ruling, Kennedy warns against government action based on hypotheticals or conjecture. Courts especially should not endorse mere speculation and must instead deal with actual or imminent situations.

He argues against making inferences about “premises as to which there remains considerable doubt” or that are “not particular to certain persons.”

Such general language reflects Kennedy’s long-held caution about government overreach – which could include the health-care mandate. The justice also is often concerned about liberty of conscience, as he noted in this latest ruling.

His approach won the day in the 5-to-4 decision involving an Arizona program that allows individuals to keep $500 of income that they might owe the state if they give that money to groups that provide private-school scholarships for needy children.

His reasoning against ObamaCare can be explained this way:

Note the concepts here – speculative and conjectural – that could also apply to the premise of the health-care mandate, which is that everyone will someday use medical care at the expense of others.

Kennedy makes clear that any legal standing for taxpayers on church-state issues should be based on specific injury, not theoretical causation. The same reasoning could easily apply to the various federal court cases on the health-care mandate now working their way up to the Supreme Court.

I'm fairly confident that Kennedy will strike down ObamaCare based on his decision in Winn. Moreover,  Judge Henry Hudson and Judge Roger Vinson, have struck down ObamaCare based on the same reasoning that Kennedy did in Winn. Kennedy can simply carry Judge Hudson and Vinson Winn's argument in his decision on ObamaCare. 

Kennedy's decision in Winn can give Americans the confident it needs to know that ObamaCare will be held unconstitutional.

Obama Makes His Choice: ObamaCare Will Go Before The Supreme Court

In my last post, I wrote about how Obama had the choice to decide when his health care plan would be heard before the United States Supreme Court. He could have the case heard this upcoming fall or he could have it heard sometime in the next year or two. Well, Obama made his choice:

The Obama administration chose not to ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to re-hear a pivotal health reform case Monday, signaling that it’s going to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether President Barack Obama’s health reform law is constitutional.

the Obama Administration intentionally missed the deadline required to seek a review from the 11th District court of Appeal which struck down his health care plan: 

Since the ruling, the Justice Department had until Monday to ask the entire 11th Circuit to review the case. Administration lawyers didn’t file the paperwork by the 5 p.m. deadline, so the ruling would stand unless the Justice Department asks the Supreme Court to step in.

The petition isn’t due until November, and the administration could get an extension.

The timing of when to file and when the case will be heard will be risky for the Obama administration:

But a Supreme Court ruling in the middle of a presidential election could carry serious political risks, since a decision upholding or striking the mandate has the potential to galvanize either Republicans or Democrats.

If the court accepts the case before January, it is likely to be put on the calendar to be heard in the spring. A decision would likely be postponed until June.

Many spectators are confused why Obama is chosing to go ahead and have it heard so close to the election. Some people believe that the Obama Administration is confident they will win. Others believe Obama will use it as a rallying cry to motivate the liberals to relect him to another term so that he can put more progressive liberal judges on the Supreme Court bench in the event ObamaCare is found unconstitutional.

For me, it doesn't matter why Obama is choosing to go ahead rather than delay having his health plan heard at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court leans right thanks to President Bush appointing Judge Alito and John Roberts and the outcome will be that ObamaCare will be struck down on a 5-4 vote. 

Obama seems to be confident that he will prevail. I think he's about to be in for a real shock. 

Obama Decides When ObamaCare Will Die: Will It Be Sooner or Later?

One way or another, ObamaCare will end in 2012. ObamaCare could be undone by a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. It might be terminated with a new Republican president like Mitt Romney who has declared that he will repeal ObamaCare by issuing an executive order that will instruct the Secretary of Health and Human services to grant a waiver to all 50 states. The United States Supreme Court might declare ObamaCare unconstitutional which would effectively end the program. 

All three scenarios are possible. However, the most realistic scenario is that ObamaCare goes before the Supreme Court. The sweetest thing about this scenario is that President Obama and the lawyers working for his administration gets to decide whether his health care plan goes before the Supreme Court this fall or or sometime in 2012 or 2013: 

Obama administration lawyers face a decision by Monday that carries a high political risk and will probably determine whether the Supreme Court decides on the constitutionality of the health care law before next year's presidential election.

The Justice Department could ask the full U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to reconsider a 2-1 decision in August that declared the law's mandate that all Americans must have health insurance unconstitutional. But seeking the full court review could take weeks, or even months, and probably push back a Supreme Court ruling until 2013.

Or government lawyers could opt to skip the full review in the lower court and appeal directly to the Supreme Court this fall. That in turn will probably lead to a constitutional ruling on President Obama's healthcare law by next summer.

Under the appeals court's rules, the Justice Department must notify the 11th Circuit by Monday whether it will seek a full court review. In recent weeks, lawyers on both sides of the case have been speculating on whether Obama's legal team is eager to get the healthcare dispute before the Supreme Court soon, even if it means risking an embarrassing defeat for the president as he seeks reelection.

"Everyone is waiting to see what they do Monday," said Karen Harned, a lawyer for the National Federation of Independent Business. "For the Supreme Court, this is only a question of when they will decide it. And we are hoping it will be decided in the next term."

Whatever Obama decides to do, it comes with a strong political risk or reward: 

The fate of Obama's healthcare overhaul figures to be at the center of next year's presidential race. Republicans have been running on a promise to "repeal Obamacare." If the Supreme Court were to strike down Obama's signature law as an unconstitutional overreach by the president and a Democratic Congress, it could deal a damaging blow to the president's campaign for reelection.

However, if the justices were to uphold the law as a reasonable regulation of the nation's health insurance market, their decision would give a powerful endorsement to Obama's crusade for healthcare reform just when he most needs it. A pro-Obama ruling by the court would also badly undercut claims by "tea party" activists who contend federal regulation of healthcare is outside the bounds of the U.S. Constitution.

ObamaCare will most likely be ruled as unconstitutional by 5-4 vote and it will be a crushing blow to Obama and his chances of being reelected. 

However, if the Supreme Court does uphold ObamaCare, the law will still be unconstitutional. Just because the Supreme Court says it is doesn't necessarily make it so. There have been plenty of Supreme Court cases that have been held not to be in violation of the Constitution despite the fact that it was and still is. Many of these cases were later overturned and some of them still have yet to be overturned. 

Regardless, I think Americans have many reasons to be excited for 2012. However, if we want to defeat Obama and roll back his progressive agenda, we are going to have to work real hard to unseat the Democrats in Congress and the White House.