Trump Hits Judicial Milestone

[In the last full week of June], President Donald Trump’s 200th judicial nominee was confirmed; Judge Cory Wilson of Mississippi. Wilson will join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Trump has now filled all federal circuit court vacancies, and appointed more appellate judges than any other president at this point in his presidency. He is closing in on making as many circuit court appointments as President Obama made throughout his two terms in the White House.

President Trump, during his 2016 campaign, became the first presidential candidate to release a list of potential Supreme Court nominees; a list that helped bolster his support among those concerned about how the highest court in the land would handle Second Amendment-related cases. Although there are concerns regarding recent inaction by the Supreme Court, the problem does not appear to lie with President Trump’s nominees; Justices Neal Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

So, yes, elections do matter. We can only shudder to think what a President Hillary Clinton list of appointees would have looked like, or what a President Joe Biden’s list might include.

As for Wilson, his Second Amendment bona fides are solid. This, of course, causes great consternation among those who oppose our right to keep and bear arms. After being confirmed, the anti-gun organization Giffords issued a statement referring to Wilson’s support of the Second Amendment as “extreme and irregular.”

There is nothing “extreme and irregular” about supporting a correct interpretation of the protections offered by the Second Amendment. Judge Wilson merely understands and respects the original intent of our Founding Fathers when they included the right to keep and bear arms in the Bill of Rights. In fact, it would be “extreme and irregular” to ignore the law as laid out in the nation’s founding documents.

Fortunately, President Trump continues to show he intends to protect the Second Amendment through the courts with his judicial appointments.

© 2020 National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action. This may be reproduced. This may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.