Trump Says He Will Delegate Supreme Court Appointments To The Heritage Foundation

[babylonsister]

Trump Says He Will Delegate Supreme Court Appointments To The Heritage Foundation

by Ian Millhiser
Mar 22, 2016 12:02 pm


Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, in an apparent bid to placate conservatives who fear that he could appoint an insufficiently ideological justice if elected president, plans to release a list of 5-10 names sometime in the next week. He says that, if given the opportunity to name a Supreme Court justice, he will limit his selection to the names on that list.

At a press conference on Monday, Trump also revealed an unusual detail about how he is determining which names should be on the list. “Heritage Foundation and others are working on” the list,” according to Trump.

Heritage is a think tank known for its stridently conservative views and its unorthodox approach to mathematics. They oppose marriage equality, defend discrimination against LGBT Americans, and they have a surprisingly long history of reversing their own stances on health policy when doing so is useful to opponents of Obamacare. Their former chief “economist” is an ex-newspaper columnist and anti-tax activist with no doctorate in economics.

In 2013, Heritage released a widely criticized report claiming that immigration reform would cost an eye-popping $6.3 trillion. One of the co-authors of that report resigned four days later after news broke that “his graduate dissertation on immigration was premised on the idea that Latinos were less intelligent than whites.” Heritage also released projections predicting that the Bush tax cuts would result in significant job growth. Their projections proved less than accurate:


CREDIT: Center for American Progress

So Heritage is an odd place for a presidential candidate to seek advice on any topic. And Trump’s decision to effectively delegate the task of drawing up a list of potential Supreme Court nominees to Heritage and similar organizations is especially unusual given when he is doing so.

more...

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/03/22/3762275/trump-says-he-will-delegate-supreme-court-appointments-to-the-heritage-foundation/

[AxionExcel]

1. Meaning, if elected he will go AWOL on his responsibilities

How Republican is that?

[babylonsister]

7. Extremely republican. nt

[underpants]

2. Yeah, because they did such a great job staffing government jobs in Iraq.

[pampango]

3. And the 'populist' balloon pops once more. 'Trickle-down' it is.

Maybe he can blast Mexico or China tomorrow to go back to his 'populist' personna.

[bulloney]

4. Think tanks are like septic tanks: You get out what you put in them.

Such is the case with the Heritage Foundation.

I remember speaking on a panel discussion with Dennis Avery of the H.F. All I can say is, "What a maroon!"

[KamaAina]

5. Not The Onion?!

[stillwaiting]

6. That's pretty fucking Establishment Donald. nt

[Initech]

8. Yeah let's outsource our SCOTUS picks to the Koch Brothers. Great idea!

[0rganism]

9. unsurprising -- DJT is just pulling from the first "credible" conservative source he can find

social conservatives don't give a rat's ass whether Heritage is accurate on its economic projections or hires racists to overstate fiscal losses from immigration reform. they care about having someone in a position of authority tell them in no uncertain terms that they'll get SCOTUS nominees who pass muster on issues of birth control restrictions, anti-gay freedoms, and more-guns-for-white-people.

criticizing the resource on the basis of it's dumbass economic positions is missing the point; DJT is scoring with his support base by saying this, and probably digging a chunk out of Cruz's base at the same time.

[Johonny]

10. That's what a great leader does, a great leader does what he's told to do

I don't think anyone doubt Trump doesn't want the job of being president. Much like W he will love the show and will pimp various proposals but he won't bother to make policy or decisions. It will be a field day for the lobbyists. His presidency will be everything he claims it won't be.

[Newkularblue]

11. Id bet real money

Trump is amazed at how... uninformed... his supporters are.