A McCain Court

Published on May 7, 2008
by Michael Schrimpf

Senator John McCain gave a speech yesterday outlining the type of judges he would seek to appoint as President of the United States.  McCain said he would nominate jurists who are, "faithful in all things to the Constitution of the United States." Interesting words from a man who once said that he "would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected."

George Will once described such a philosophy as one that "favors judges who think the Constitution is so radically elastic that government regulation of speech about itself is compatible with the First Amendment."

Steven G. Calabresi and John O. McGinnis, both of Northwestern University Law School, shared similar concerns in a Wall Street Journal opinion-editorial that noted "Mr. McCain is perhaps the foremost champion of campaign-finance regulation, regulation that is hard to square with the First Amendment." 

Nonetheless, the pair concluded that despite being a member of the Gang of 14, "there is no reason to believe that Mr. McCain will not make excellent appointments to the court. On judicial nominations, he has voted soundly in the past from Robert Bork in 1987 to Samuel Alito in 2006. His pro-life record also provides a surety that he will not appoint judicial activists."

With McCain and judicial nominees the safest thing to say is that only time will tell what type of justices he would nominate- if he is given the opportunity at all.