The idea that all the justices Trump appointed are all bad is just ridiculous. It also means that Trump is a total idiot.
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I never had the sense that PDJT had exclusive say in who was put forward as a SC nominee. I think he depended heavily on pre-approved lists of candidates prepared by the Federalist Society (FS). I don’t know enough about this organization to trust or not trust their nominees, and PDJT couldn’t possibly have personal knowledge of all the potential candidates.
He had to rely on recommendations too so, ultimately, who he nominated depended on how conservative and trustworthy the FS is, and whether anyone like McConnell had their thumb on that scale too. I don’t think that McConnell would cooperate to guide a nominee through the confirmation process without his own personal approval. That gives me pause right there.
The swamp is wide and deep and the deep state infiltrated as many conservative organizations as possible through the years in order to undermine their efforts. It remains to be seen through Gorsuch’s, Kavanaugh’s and Barrett’s rulings whether or not the Federalist Society was one of them. Any failures in this regard would not necessarily be entirely PDJT’s fault due to the rigging of the game long before he came along.
A couple of thoughts. Trump has had to depend on assistants and others for recommendations for all manner of hires and decisions throughout his business life. He is a good judge of character, and his general knowledge is very wide. I am sure he is familiar with the Federalist Society, even I am to some degree. He also reads very fast and no doubt read up on the SCOTUs picks himself. Here is one snip. From my searches nothing is really useful except this bit, showing that the FS really is a mixed bag. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society
In January 2019, The Washington Post Magazine wrote that the Federalist Society had reached an “unprecedented peak of power and influence.” Of the current nine members of the Supreme Court of the United States, six (Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Amy Coney Barrett) are current or former members of the organization.[2][10]