As Trump Rushes To Fill A Court Seat, Conservative Groups Fear Missteps

9/21/2020 As Trump rushes to fill a Court seat, conservative groups fear missteps - POLITICO
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LEGAL
As Trump rushes to fill a Court seat, conservative groups fear
missteps
What seemed like a pre-election gift — Republicans replacing a die-hard liberal on the Supreme Court — has
led some conservative groups to worry about not going far enough to the right.
While President Donald Trump prepares to unveil his Supreme Court nominee in the coming days, a broad
coalition of conservative groups are hurrying to create an unofficial war room. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Photo
By GABBY ORR
09/21/2020 04:30 AM EDT
It didn’t take long, after the news of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death ricocheted
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/21/conservatives-supreme-court-pick-419179 1/9
through Washington late Friday, for leaders of some of the most prominent
conservative organizations to leap into action — urging donors and grassroots
activists overnight to prepare for a Supreme Court battle that could have
generational consequences for their movement.
By Saturday morning, senior aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

were holding conference calls with conservative stakeholders to discuss how
soon they could revive a war-room infrastructure that has laid dormant since
Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s grueling confirmation. Others were revisiting their
2020 plans, wondering whether they should scrap the multimillion-dollar
messaging campaigns they had planned for this fall — that would have focused
on pocketbook issues and the ongoing economic recovery — to flood the
airwaves with ads about the sudden Supreme Court vacancy instead.
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“Conservatives understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve a

real conservative majority on the Supreme Court that could last for decades,”
said Mike Davis, a former Senate Judiciary Committee aide who founded the
Article III Project, a judicial advocacy group, following Kavanaugh's
confirmation. “We are not going to blow it six weeks out from the election.”
But as the initial wave of excitement dissipated over the weekend, some
conservative organizers began to express concern about the vetting process
that will unfold in the days ahead, as Trump pushes for a swift confirmation
process that is neither guaranteed nor likely to draw unanimous support from
Senate Republicans.
Almost as soon as Trump’s team focused on Judges Amy Coney Barrett and
Barbara Lagoa as his frontrunners for the seat on Saturday, a behind-the-
Barbara Lagoa as his frontrunners for the seat on Saturday, a behind the
scenes horse race began between anti-abortion purists, who have long sought
to overturn the landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade, and more
libertarian conservatives, who are principally concerned with dismantling the
administrative state. Several people said Barrett, a devout Catholic and former
clerk to the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, and who has served on the
7th Circuit Court of Appeals since 2017, is seen as having more sufficient anti-
abortion bona fides than Lagoa, a Cuban American from Florida who was
confirmed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last December.
LEGAL
What you need to know about Barbara Lagoa
BY E VA N SEMONES
The jockeying that began over the weekend has involved both social
conservative groups — including Concerned Women for America, Heritage
Action, Susan B. Anthony List and March for Life Action — and groups such as
Americans for Prosperity and the Judicial Crisis Network that have tended to
prioritize the judicial philosophies of originalism and textualism over social
conservative causes.
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Several social conservatives said they are still recovering from a pair of stinging
betrayals this summer involving two Republican appointees to the bench, and
want stronger commitments to social traditionalism before they can
comfortably support the nominee Trump is expected to announce this week.
They fear a nominee who does not satisfy these standards could contribute to a
generation of disenchanted conservative voters down the road, citing their

existing frustrations with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, sided with liberals on the court earlier
this summer to block a law that would have significantly curtailed abortion
access in Louisiana. Gorsuch, Trump’s first appointee, penned the majority
opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County, extending workplace discrimination
protections to LGBTQ Americans.
“This is coming so closely on the heels of Bostock, where we were told Gorsuch
was going to be great and we ended up getting completely slapped in the face,
that I think the biggest divide will be the extent to which President Trump’s
nominee should be scrutinized,” said one conservative policy activist.
“This was not the first term that Roberts gave us reason for concern, plus what
happened with Gorsuch — it has people questioning the vetting process,”
added Curt Levy, a veteran of Supreme Court confirmation battles and
president of the Committee for Justice.
Depending on who Trump chooses, Tom McClusky said his anti-abortion

group March for Life Action could wait until it feels the nominee has been
properly scrutinized before lending support to the confirmation battle. He
noted that they did this with Kavanaugh, who was initially met with
reservations from some anti-abortion conservatives.
LEGAL
What you need to know about Amy Coney Barrett
BY E VA N SEMONES
“The minute the president announces a nominee, we’re not going to send out a
news release saying this person is the bee's knees,” McClusky said. “I certainly
hope the president picks a nominee where it’s more clear that they are pro-life.
It’s not something that the other side hesitates about, so I don’t see why our
side should.”
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Privately, religious conservatives expressed concern about Lagoa, a lesser-

known judge who wasn’t added to the list of potential Supreme Court nominees
from which Trump has vowed to choose until earlier this month. They
acknowledge the political upside of nominating a Latina from the all-important
battleground state of Florida, where polls between Trump and Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden have tightened, but remain uneasy about her
slim record on hot-button issues such as abortion, health care, LGBTQ rights
and Second Amendment protections. While Barrett has previously said it’s
“very unlikely” the court will dismantle Roe, her supporters contend she would
be a reliable vote against it if given the chance.
“I haven’t heard any concerns about Barrett on abortion. The consensus view is
she would be rock solid,” said one Senate GOP aide.
Meanwhile, Lagoa’s supporters argue that in a political climate as fraught as

the current one, her bipartisan appeal should carry more weight in White
House considerations than outside concerns about her record. Lagoa received
an overwhelming 80-15 vote in the Senate for her confirmation last year —
compared with Barrett’s 55-43 approval — and could present less risk to
vulnerable GOP senators who might otherwise lose critical support if the White
House and McConnell plow forward with a nominee whose record and
previous comments afford outsize attention to the issue of abortion. In
response to a Senate questionnaire she completed prior to being confirmed to
the 11th Circuit, Lagoa said she would apply Roe as controlling precedent as a
lower court judge.
Others insist that a focus on social issues is more important than ever given the
monumental opportunity conservatives have to install a justice who will fill a
liberal vacancy and could spend decades on the court. Both Gorsuch and
Kavanaugh replaced Republican appointees on the court, unlike the vacancy
left by Ginsburg, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. One
prominent Republican senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, has previously said
he will vote only for a nominee who, prior to being nominated, “explicitly
acknowledged that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.”
 READ COVERAGE ON JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG'S D E AT H
As Trump rushes to fill a Court seat, conservative groups fear missteps
‘She’s been groomed for this moment’: Amy Barrett’s Supreme Court preparation
began early
 How RBG's open seat impacts the most divisive issues headed to the Supreme Court
Cruz: Ginsburg was ‘one of the finest Supreme Court litigators to have ever lived’
Trump takes shot at Sen. Murkowski
“Cultural and social issues are going to play a much bigger role and the
Federalist Society is going to have to grapple with that,” said the conservative
policy activist. “There is a perception among the movement that they support
administrative law judges who are really good on regulatory issues, but hand-
wave at the social issues.”
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Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino, who has worked closely with
the administration on previous judicial appointments, said “one of the things
we’ve learned is you need someone with a very clear record of their judicial
approach.”
“That will only increase,” she said, adding that “the vetting that goes into this
choice is very intense and something the White House has been working on for
a while.”
While Trump prepares to unveil his nominee in the coming days, a broad
coalition of conservative groups are hurrying to create an unofficial war room
for the next six weeks — and potentially longer if a confirmation vote is delayed
until after Election Day — that will help guide conservative voters through a
hyperpartisan fight and assist the White House and McConnell with what could
be a herculean lift if other Republicans hold out. The coalition is likely to
include Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Action, Judicial Crisis Network,
Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America, March for Life Action
and others that participated in earlier judicial confirmations.
The Republican National Committee will also deploy its rapid-response team to
counter Democratic criticisms of a rushed process and charges of partisan
hypocrisy against GOP senators who opposed holding a confirmation vote on
Merrick Garland, the nominee President Barack Obama chose in March 2016
after Scalia's death created a vacancy on the bench. The party apparatus will
also employ the efforts of its research team to highlight the qualifications of
Trump’s nominee and its digital operation to engage with voters to whom a
Supreme Court confirmation battle could prove persuasive.
One Trump campaign official said the Supreme Court vacancy has the potential
to boost the president’s appeal with white evangelicals and Catholics — two
groups that overwhelmingly backed him in 2016, in large part because of the
courts, but among whom polls have shown eroding support for Trump in the
final months before the Nov. 3 election.
“Our teams will expose the naked partisanship of the Democrats’ position, and
aggressively promote the qualifications of our nominee,” said Mike Reed,
deputy chief of staff for communications at the RNC.
FILED UNDER: ABORTION, MITCH MCCONNELL, U.S. SUPREME COURT,
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9/21/2020 As Trump rushes to fill a Court seat, conservative groups fear missteps - POLITICO

As Trump rushes to fill a Court seat, conservative groups fear

09/21/2020 04:30 AM EDT

By Saturday morning, senior aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

“Conservatives understand this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve a

What you need to know about Barbara Lagoa

generation of disenchanted conservative voters down the road, citing their

Depending on who Trump chooses, Tom McClusky said his anti-abortion

What you need to know about Amy Coney Barrett

Privately, religious conservatives expressed concern about Lagoa, a lesser-

Meanwhile, Lagoa’s supporters argue that in a political climate as fraught as

 READ COVERAGE ON JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG'S D E AT H

Trump takes shot at Sen. Murkowski

FILED UNDER: ABORTION, MITCH MCCONNELL, U.S. SUPREME COURT,

the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Breaking News Alerts

Credit Card Payments

Do not sell my info

Notice to California Residents

© 2020 POLITICO LLC

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