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Was it luck that President Trump has a Supreme Court that has mostly been supporting his policies, overturning precedent rulings of the Supreme Court?

Supreme Court Justices are different from other government officials, because they are appointed, not elected, and have no term limits. By appointing relatively young individuals as Justices, a President of the United States can influence judicial decisions for a very long time.

Attorney Lisa Graves shares her insights gained as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government, including as chief counsel for nominations of the Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy, in Without Precedent. She focuses in the ascent of John Roberts as Chief Justice and his leadership in overturning progressive precedents.

During Roberts' confirmation hearings, he presented himself as an impartial jurist, "I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat." Then he proceeded to disregard Supreme Court precedents by ruling in favor of corporate intervention in politics in Citizens United, overturning the federal protection of abortion of Roe v. Wade in Gonzales v. Carhart and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, and creating Presidential immunity from prosecution in Trump v. United States.

Lisa Graves traces the roots of politically motivated decisions issued since John Roberts became Chief Justice to the Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore in 2000. As a result of the Supreme Court's ruling preventing Florida from recounting votes for the 2000 election, George W. Bush (Jr.) became President of the United States and was in position to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court. John Roberts was a lead lawyer on Bush's legal team for this issue. President Bush rewarded Roberts with a nomination for the judgeship on the DC Circuit, putting him into position to be nominated to be Chief Justice. During "W's" second term, he nominated Roberts for the Supreme Court in 2005.

Presidential nominations for Supreme Court justices are approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. By keeping a majority in the Senate and blocking nominations of Democrat-leaning judges, Republicans in the Senate have been successful in mostly approving Republican-leaning judges. The timing of retirements and deaths of Supreme Court justices also played a role in Republican-leaning judges being approved.

Clayton Boyden Gray via the Committee for Justice, followed by Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have been "kingmakers", providing recommendations to fill judicial vacancies mostly followed by Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Leonard Leo has become extraordinarily wealthy thanks to contributions from billionaires, like the Koch brothers (read Big Oil).

One of the definitions of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Reading Without Precedent will help the reader understand how Republicans prepared to exploit opportunities to gain control of the Supreme Court.

Buy it on Amazon: Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights.

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