THE TRUMP COURT IS NOT COMING, IT IS HERE

When I wrote this article a while back, two of my law school professors called me to weigh in. One of my kids, on the way to law school said, " OMG, it's that Baby Boomer thing again". The Baby boomers are turning 70. Everday the children of the 50's are turning 70. There are a lot of us. We have had a big impact on many aspects of life. Our fathers came back from WW ll, where they had defeated Hitler & Tojo. They were strong & young and determined. The armed forces were still segregated at the end of the War. When I went with my dad to Fort Meade during the Korean War, I was very young, but I still remember white & black soldiers together. It never dawned on me that the Army wasn't always like that, but those Black men like my dad came back from Europe and the Pacific ready to take on whatever America threw at them. There were so many Boomers that Wall Street & Madison Avenue knew what was coming and they acted accordingly. To many of us the biggest changes were not coming out the TV or the stereo. It was coming out of courtrooms. That may be why so many of us went to law school. We grew up with Brown v. Board of Education, 347 US 483 (1954), Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436 (1966) and Roe v. Wade, 410 US 113 (1973). We knew that Superman could not fly and that we had to do more with our time than listen to James Brown, Elvis or the Beetles. A great deal of the change in our time came in the courts. The real Superman did not swoon out of the sky. She filed briefs and pleaded before a court. The ultimate court is the US Supreme Court. We knew that Justice John Marshall Harlan was the sole dissenter in the case that made segregation legal, Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896) and that his dissent provided the basis of Brown.

On the morning that the US Supreme Court essentially overruled Roe. v. Wade, I was attending the first of two graduations. A grandson's in the morning from elementary school and a granddaughter's from high school that evening. I was scheduled to do a brief television interview to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court decision that gutted New York's gun law, which has helped to make New Yorkers safe for a century. My grandson's principal, arranged for me to have a suitable place in the school to do the interview. A staff member took care of my connection, and the show's producer had done a test. Ten minutes before we were to go live my mobile phone rang. It was the producer. He said, " Roland, I am so sorry we have to cancel your segment, The Supreme Court just reversed Roe. v. Wade.

The Federal judiciary has changed dramatically. It was orchestrated and did happen overnight. The Trump Court is not coming. It is here.

THE TRUMP COURT IS COMING

Baltimore Sun

Jun 28, 2021

Now that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement, there will be a conservative bent at the high court well into the 21st century (“Justice Kennedy retiring, giving Trump pivotal court pick,” June 28). As baby boomer federal court judges reach 70, the lower courts (i.e., the pool of potential supreme court nominees) will increasingly tilt to the right. The baby boomers that I went to law school with will start to turn 70 soon. In fact, some already have. Every time one does, the president gets to appoint a judge to the U.S. district court or U.S. courts of appeal vacancy. The vacancy exists even if the birthday girl (or boy) decides to take senior status and remain on the bench.

At one time Supreme Court justices came from different back grounds. In fact, technically, a U.S. Supreme Court justice doesn’t even have to be a lawyer. Chief Justice Earl Warren was the governor of California. Justice Hugo Black was a U.S. Senator. William O. Douglass had been the head of the SEC and an adviser to Franklin Roosevelt. The climate of Washington is so partisan today that neither party is willing to nominate anyone to a vacancy on the Supreme Court unless that person is a mature judge on a U.S. circuit court of appeal.

The lower federal courts are being packed with conservative judges who create the pool for potential Supreme Court nominees. Such men and women will have an extensive body of written opinions. They are also at a point in life where they are unlikely to change long-held beliefs. These are the only people that whatever party is in control of the Senate is likely to confirm. Years after Trump has moved on to the great golf course in the sky, the federal courts from top to bottom will be more conservative than they have ever been.

Roland Nicholson Jr., Baltimore

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