Two questions for Trump's Supreme Court nominees

Which leads to the two questions that the Trump administration should be asking of potential judicial nominees. First: Will they elevate precedent over the original meaning of the Constitution, thereby locking in a highly distorted reading of federal power? Or will they insist on interpreting America’s founding document and its amendments as they were written?

Second: Do they, like Justice Scalia, have the courage of their convictions—the intestinal fortitude to stand against the public’s demand for this or that outcome, and to do what they believe to be right? Or will they bend with the political wind to protect the “legitimacy” of the court?

This isn’t a matter of seeking judges who will reach conservative results versus liberal ones. It’s about adhering to the text of the Constitution, while letting the political chips fall where they may. (Justice Thomas would have reached a “liberal” result in Raich.)

Thanks to the results of last week’s election—including Republicans’ retaining control of the Senate—there has never been a better opportunity in my lifetime to restore what Donald Trump, in the final presidential debate, quite eloquently referred to as “the Constitution as it was meant to be.”