As Fox hosts go, Chris Wallace is as good as they get. But too often he misses the hard question. Today he asked Senator Tom Cotton about the obvious: GOP hypocrisy on denying a SCOTUS seat to Merrick Garland while rushing to fill the current vacancy. Wallace did a few followups but never penetrated Cotton's canned and ridiculous evasions.
But Wallace did not press Cotton on this. The Arkansas senator said:
"The American people know that Donald Trump is going to put nominees up for the federal courts who will apply the law, not make the law."
Sorry, but it is REPUBLICAN-APPOINTED justices who are the activists! They are the ones "making law" by striking precedent. That is exactly what conservatives want in reversing Roe. Did the court not "make law" by striking Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act?
As Ian Millhiser writes at Vox:
"In an age of legislative dysfunction, whoever controls the courts controls the country. In the past decade or so — or more precisely, since Republicans took over the House in 2011 — Congress has been barely functional. You can count on one hand — and possibly on just a few fingers — the major legislation it has enacted.
"Judges, by contrast, have become the most consequential policymakers in the nation. They have gutted America’s campaign finance law and dismantled much of the Voting Rights Act. They have allowed states to deny health coverage to millions of Americans. They’ve held that religion can be wielded as a sword to cut away the rights of others. They’ve drastically watered down the federal ban on sexual harassment. And that barely scratches the surface."
Whenever the subject of "activist judges" is raised, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and ALL Democrats must respond: CURRENTLY, IT IS THE REPUBLICANS WHO WANT AND APPOINT ACTIVIST JUDGES!