OPINION:
Do you think Obamacare is an important campaign issue? What about religious liberty? Abortion? Regulatory overreach? Many of the candidates vying for the Republican nomination certainly do, and many have outlined their approaches to these issues. But those positions mean little without a Supreme Court willing to uphold the laws Congress passes and the president signs.
The next president may have the opportunity to appoint as many as four Supreme Court justices, shaping the future of the nation’s highest court for a generation. This critical importance of the Supreme Court was the very reason I ran for president in 2000, when I campaigned on a platform of nominating conservative justices.
As a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has played a leading role in countless confirmation battles, including defending Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas against spurious attacks, I understand that selecting judges with consistent conservative credentials and proven legal records is the only sure way to protect the Constitution. The alternative is to allow judges to use the federal courts to advance a progressive policy agenda that threatens the constitutional balance between the executive branch and Congress, and between the federal government and the states.
The stakes for conservatives in the upcoming election couldn’t be higher. President Obama has abused his executive powers time and again on issues such as climate change, immigration and the Second Amendment. Hillary Clinton has promised to follow this precedent of governing by executive fiat and ignoring the will of Congress, based on the notion that Americans have elected too many Republicans to the House and Senate. As president, Mrs. Clinton would surely fight to confirm judges eager to erode the Second Amendment at every turn and strike down reasonable protections for unborn children, even protections supported by a majority of the American people.
This week, Gov. Jeb Bush committed to nominating justices and judges with proven conservative records to the federal courts. While following through on that commitment is likely to spark high-profile clashes with Senate Democrats, I say bring it on.
Mr. Bush’s record as the governor of Florida is instructive. In one of his biggest political battles, Jeb reformed a judicial nomination process that gave undue influence to the state bar association, which was dominated by trial lawyers. After successfully curtailing the powers of this liberal interest group, Mr. Bush was able to place committed conservatives throughout the Florida judiciary. Most notably, he appointed proven conservatives like Raul Cantero and Kenneth Bell to the Florida Supreme Court.
Democrats’ efforts to nominate liberal judges who will legislate from the bench is really an effort to nullify conservative efforts to enact sensible laws. Thanks to his success in nominating proven conservatives to the bench, Mr. Bush was able to advance conservative policies in Florida without an out-of-control judiciary seeking to block his every move.
On the Second Amendment, Mr. Bush earned an A-plus rating from the National Rifle Association for signing laws like Stand Your Ground and for making Florida the national leader in concealed-carry permits. He was a strong defender of life, signing a ban on partial-birth abortion, requiring parental notification when minor girls sought to have an abortion, and defunding Planned Parenthood while overseeing a doubling of the number of adoptions in Florida.
During almost every one of these battles, Florida liberals took the fight directly to the state courts. Mr. Bush, and conservative ideas, won because he had made appointing the right kind of judges a priority.
It is essential that our next president understand and take seriously the crucial responsibility to pick judges who know that their first — and only — job is to interpret the Constitution and apply the laws as written. That Mr. Bush did this as governor of Florida speaks volumes about the kind of judges he will appoint if elected president of the United States. He has a proven track record of appointing judges that conservatives applaud.
We have an enormous opportunity in the upcoming election to choose a president who will help realign federal courts with the Constitution. As a lawmaker who has been on the front lines of battles to confirm conservative judges for decades, I recognize in Mr. Bush the commitment to fight for strong conservatives who will adhere to the judge’s proper role in ensuring that our constitutional principles are protected.
No one in the presidential race has a stronger record of nominating conservative judges than Jeb Bush. This record is yet another reason that he stands above the rest of the field as the best Republican candidate to carry our party’s banner into the general election.
• Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, is president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate.
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