What Donald Trump Thinks Judges are good for
Earlier in this season’s campaign, for example, he was asked about judges he might want to nominate to the Supreme Court. “Well, I’d probably appoint people that would look very seriously at her e-mail disaster, because it’s a criminal activity, and I would appoint people that would look very seriously at that to start off with,” Trump said in a phone interview with ABC News, referring to Hillary Clinton. “What she’s getting away with is absolutely murder. You talk about a case—now that’s a real case.”
.. As in most other areas, Trump is transactional about the judiciary. He appears to have no interest in legal philosophy per se; rather, he divides judges, as he divides most others, into the categories of friend and foe. What matters is not how judges think, but where they come out—on Trump’s side, or not.
.. In a speech last week in San Diego, where Curiel sits, Trump unleashed an attackagainst the judge that was unlike any by a Presidential candidate against a sitting judge in living memory. Earlier, Curiel had set the case, which was brought by former students at Trump’s school, for trial in late November, after Election Day. Trump, in response, said, “There should be no trial. This should have been dismissed on summary judgment easily.” He added, “Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel.” Trump went on, “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine.” The case, Trump concluded, was “rigged” against him. “This court system, the judges in this court system, federal court. They ought to look into Judge Curiel, because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace,” Trump said.
.. But Trump’s complaints are more revealing even than the decisions that irk him. Trump has no apparent philosophy of how judges make decisions; he doesn’t even attempt something as simple, and revealing, as George W. Bush’s antipathy for judges who “legislate from the bench.” For Trump, rather, judging is all personal, at least as far as he is concerned.
.. As illustrated by his attacks on Judge Curiel, Trump’s style is bigoted name-calling, not reasoned critique. That’s his pattern—and not just about judges.