Originally published at National Catholic Register
By mid-May 2016, Donald Trump had sown up the Republican presidential nomination. But he was still fighting to calm social conservatives’ worries about him. Their paramount goal was overturning Roe v. Wade.
Trump took the unprecedented step of publishing a list of 11 prospective nominees to the Supreme Court, all of whom — conservatives reasonably thought — would vote to reverse Roe. Trump said that his list was “representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value and, as president, I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court justices.”
He did not identify anyone who worked on the list. It was widely reported, however, that the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation — both tried-and-true conservative outfits — had done so. Trump added 10 names a few months later. Neil Gorsuch was one of them. He became Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court.
Tipping his judicial hand likely secured Trump’s election. He won by a whisker. Few social conservatives were tempted to vote for Hillary Clinton. But enough of them in battleground states might have stayed home or wrote in someone other than Trump, to cost him the election.
