The Supreme Court became one of the premier issues in the midterm campaign.
Republicans won a massive victory when the Senate confirmed Brett Kavanaugh.
And now one Supreme Court Justice made a shocking announcement about her health.
Supreme Court Justice Announces She Is Retiring From Public Life
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announced she was retiring from public life due to Alzheimer’s disease.
“Some time ago, doctors diagnosed me with the beginning stages of dementia, probably Alzheimer’s disease,” she wrote in a public letter. “As this condition has progressed, I am no longer able to participate in public life.”
Sandra Day O’Connor is one of the big reasons why Supreme Court nomination fights are so nasty.
Ronald Reagan nominated her to the court in 1981 to fulfill a campaign promise to nominate a woman.
But she was not vetted for her stances on key issues.
For instance, when O’Connor was an Arizona state legislator, she supported a radical pro-abortion bill.
On social issues, O’Connor could be counted on to side with the left.
She voted with the majority to reaffirm Roe v. Wade in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.
And she handed the radical homosexual lobby a huge win in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas case.
O’Connor voted with Justice Kennedy and the court’s four liberals to strike down Texas’ sodomy laws.
This decision paved the way for the Supreme Court to impose nationwide homosexual marriage in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.
How O’Connor Affected Today’s Nomination Fights
Republicans began to realize Supreme Court nomination fights were unlike anything else in politics.
Conservatives realized the left was able to impose their social agenda through the courts because they stacked the bench with ideological warriors.
The court was not the place for token picks or diversity just for the sake of diversity.
So that led Ronald Reagan to nominate Robert Bork for the next Supreme Court opening.
Democrats immediately smeared him.
Ted Kennedy led the charge.
He accused Bork of being a racist who wanted oppress blacks with new Jim Crow laws.
Kennedy raged that Bork would overturn Roe v. Wade and force women into back-alley abortions.
The Senate voted down Bork’s nomination.
And Bork’s name became a verb.
The dictionary defines “Borked” as “to attack a candidate systematically in the media.”
Bork’s defeat led George H.W. Bush to nominate David Souter to the Supreme Court because he was a “stealth nominee.”
Since Souter had no paper trail on any issues, Bush’s team knew it was unlikely he’d get Borked.
The Senate confirmed him, but Souter turned out to be a leftist.
He joined O’Connor in voting to uphold Roe in the Casey decision.
And he became a reliable leftist vote for the remainder of his career.
Souter and O’Connor led to the Federalist Society to begin identifying and developing judicial candidates for sitting Republican Presidents to consider nominating.
The idea was to present choices that could be confirmed and were reliable conservative votes once on the bench.
The end game of this 25 year-long project to reshape the federal bench was the Brett Kavanaugh nomination.
And it all started with the failed decision to put Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court because of identity politics.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
