Donald Trump won the last presidential election in North Dakota by a 35.8 percent margin of victory. Sixty-three percent of North Dakotans voted for Trump, just 27.2 percent voted for Hillary Clinton. Trump won all but two counties.
A big part of that overwhelming support came from citizens like me who are concerned about the future of the United States Supreme Court. Recall that the vacant seat of Justice Antonin Scalia was at the center of that election.
Then-Candidate Trump made history by providing a public list of possible Supreme Court nominees. No other president in history has been so transparent with the American public. This unprecedented move and the quality of the nominees on that list earned him the trust of our state.
The president followed through on that promise to us by nominating Justice Neil Gorsuch to the vacant seat. And Gorsuch has served honorably at the Supreme Court by being a champion of the Constitution and not playing politics with the law.
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As the state director of Concerned Women for America of North Dakota, I was proud to stand with Gorsuch, and we were also proud to see both our senators vote to confirm him. We hope they will continue to make us proud now that they have the chance to confirm another great justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.
They should reject political partisanship once again and vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, especially, who is in a toss up fight against Rep. Kevin Cramer, would benefit from rejecting the political machinations of her party’s leadership in Washington and stand with the people of North Dakota.
There is no question Kavanaugh is imminently qualified for the Supreme Court. He is a jurist who upholds the Constitution as written, instead of relying on that “living Constitution” judges use to enact their personal opinions into law.
Kavanaugh clerked for the Ninth and Third Circuit at the appellate level and also for Justice Anthony Kennedy at the U.S. Supreme Court. He was in private practice for a time and then served President George W. Bush as senior associate counsel. As a litigator, he has argued cases before numerous courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. And he has written more than 300 opinions as a judge in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has served for the past 12 years.
Kavanaugh’s reputation of impartiality and fairness is well known. He has stood up for religious liberty, has a strong free-speech record, and has recognized the government has a valid interest in choosing life over abortion. Listen to what Yale liberal law professor Akhil Reed Amar (a supporter of Hillary Clinton) wrote for The New York Times, “Last week the president promised to select ‘someone with impeccable credentials, great intellect, unbiased judgment, and deep reverence for the laws and Constitution of the United States.’ In picking Judge Kavanaugh, he has done just that.”
“Coach K,” as he is known by his sixth-grade daughter’s friends because of his volunteer work with their school’s basketball team, is a man of character and honor. That commitment to help the next generation of women is telling and has continued throughout his career.
This is why the members of CWA of North Dakota will unite in a statewide effort we are calling “Women for Kavanaugh” to ask our senators for one simple thing: “Confirm Judge K.”
Linda Thorson is the state director for Concerned Women for America of North Dakota.