A weekend email from the Republican National Coalition for Life, founded by the late Phyllis Schlafly, declared that President Trump’s forthcoming nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy is “the most important presidential appointment in history.”
The letter from Ed Martin, a Schlafly successor* after an ugly family feud for control of her political legacy, said the nomination fight will be a “titanic political battle for the ages.” He told activists that “even the great Ronald Reagan” was pushed into nominating Kennedy when Robert Bork was rejected.
Martin said that Trump “must nominate and then fight to confirm” a justice like Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, arguably the most far-right justices on a right-wing dominated court.
“On September 10, 2016 at Phyllis Schlafly’s funeral you signed Phyllis’ copy of the pro-life 2016 platform and pledged to adhere to it,” says the petition that Martin asks supporters to sign.
Other excerpts from his letter:
We’ve spent decades battling for a true pro-life conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Now we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lock the leftists out of power on the Supreme Court, to rein in the out-of-control judiciary and preserve the sanctity of human life! …
You and I need to flood the White House with petitions. When this fight turns really nasty – and it will – Donald Trump needs to see that the American people are with him. He needs to see that no matter what he must keep fighting. He must put a pro-life conservative on the Supreme Court!
Let me remind you of exactly what is at stake here. Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote on the Supreme Court. He’s the one justice who prevented the conservatives from being able to stand up for life and the U.S. Constitution. He’s the justice who voted over an over for things like “gay marriage.”
Now that he’s retiring, a fifth conservative vote on the high court could undo all the damage Anthony Kennedy and the liberals on the Supreme Court have done.
* Update: For more recent development on battle for control over name and political legacy of Phyllis Schlafly and Eagle Forum, see this July 27, 2018 post.
