When Edwin Meese served as U.S. attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, he had the opportunity to advise the president concerning his nomination of Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. Justice Scalia went on to prove himself a stalwart defender not only of the Second Amendment, but of the plain meaning of the Constitution as a whole. “Justice Scalia was probably, of all the justices in history, one of the most faithful supporters of the Constitution as it was actually written,” says Meese.
Now Meese is worried because he sees a new crop of justices who do not share Scalia’s reverence for the Constitution as the foundation of American law. President Barack Obama appears dedicated to appointing such justices to the Supreme Court, as evidenced by his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
“Both of his previous nominees swore to uphold the Constitution and said they would when they were confirmed … and yet as soon as they took the bench, they fell right into this bloc of justices who vote against the Constitution. So I think any nominee of this president, they would probably fall right into the same type of violations of the Constitution.”
Hence Meese’s trepidation regarding Merrick Garland, whose record does nothing to suggest that he would uphold the Second Amendment.
“This is typical, I think, of a mindset that Obama’s nominees have, including the current nominee, and that is that the Constitution ought to mean what the judges say it is, rather than what the Constitution actually says.”
Meese points out that even Joe Biden, back before he was VP, argued against appointing a new Supreme Court justice during the election season. “Therefore, I think the Senate is very properly saying, let’s let the people decide who the next president will be, and that’s plenty of time then to put someone on the Court.”
If the appointment of Scalia’s replacement on the bench is successfully deferred to the next president, that hardly means that supporters of the Second Amendment can rest easy. It makes it more important than ever to make sure that Hillary Clinton, whose platform is centered on her extreme anti-gun stance, is not allowed to become president.
“I think that the election of 2016 is probably one of the most important elections, certainly in my lifetime,” Meese said. “If Hillary Clinton was elected, we would simply be having Obama’s third term, because she has been lock-step with him …”
I hope you’ll watch my entire exclusive interview with Edwin Meese, which can also be found on NRA News here.
