Richard Wolf, USAToday
June 16, 2020
WASHINGTON – It took President Donald Trump only 11 days in office to decide that Colorado’s Neil Gorsuch deserved a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Trump followed that up with his nomination of Maryland’s Brett Kavanaugh one year later.
But during their short time on the high court, the two conservatives have shown they are willing to tangle with doctrinaire conservatism – and with each other. Along with Chief Justice John Roberts, the court’s swing vote, they are denying Trump the reliable conservative majority he expected.
The volatility that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh bring to the court was on display Monday in the court’s 6-3 decision giving gay, lesbian and transgender workers protection under a 1964 federal law banning employment discrimination. It was the biggest decision by the court thus far this term, and Trump’s nominees played leading roles.
Roberts, who could have kept the writing of the opinion for himself, instead assigned it to Gorsuch, the most junior of the six justices in the majority. Kavanaugh, who most frequently sides with the chief justice, often against the court’s other three conservatives, penned one of two vehement dissents.
More:Supreme Court grants federal job protections to gay, lesbian, transgender workers
The result left Trump somewhat surprised but accepting of the court’s – and his nominees’ – verdict. “They ruled, and we live with their decision,” the president said, adding it was a “very powerful decision, actually.”
The LGBTQ victory was not a complete surprise. Gorsuch, even more than Roberts, had emerged as the likely swing vote back in October, when the case was argued. At the time, he said the argument was at least “in play” that the prohibition on sex discrimination in the federal law includes a worker’s sexual orientation and gender identity. But he worried a ruling for LGBTQ rights would entail “massive social upheaval.”
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Jeff in Charlotte