The Roe Tradeoff Begins

Maine GOP Sen. Susan Collins is shopping her no vote on Trump's SCOTUS pick to Blue Dog Democrats in the Senate who will almost certainly vote yes in order to maintain the moderate line, even though Trump will repeatedly attack them by name and encourage his supporters to do the same over the next four months, as this is how the Senate works in 2018.

The Republican senator, a supporter of abortion rights, said Roe v. Wade is settled law that has been established as a constitutional right.

"A candidate who would overturn Roe would not be acceptable," she said.

Collins added that she urged the president to expand the number of people he is considering for the high court beyond his initial list.

She said there are people on Trump's list she could not support "because I believe that they have demonstrated a disrespect for the vital principle of stare decisis," which is Latin for judicial precedent.

The Maine Republican added that "it would be inappropriate" to ask a judicial nominee how they are going to vote on a future case.

"A discussion of precedent, however, is very important," Collins said. "What I want to see is a nominee who, regardless of his or her personal views on the very difficult and contentious life issue, is going to respect precedent, regardless."

Collins said, "A number of judges [have told her] that good judges are always unhappy with some of their decisions but they make the right call regardless of their personal views. And that’s what I want to see in this nominee."

Collins also left herself an out with weasel words over "respecting precedent", but the other four conservatives on the court, including Trump's first pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch, have shown no problem destroying precedent in the most recent term when it comes to serving corporations and the culture war on the right.

Also, let's remember Susan Collins had zero problems confirming Gorsuch, neither did John McCain, and Democratic Blue Dogs Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, and Joe Manchin all voted yes too. I expect an almost identical vote despite Gorsuch's many promises in early 2017 that he would respect precedent.  In his first term, he helped destroy decades-long precedents in labor union law, voting rights, and separation of church and state.

Whoever Trump picks will be willing to overturn precedent.  It will be obvious from their judicial opinions what they are going to do, which is why Trump is going to pick them.  Sometime in the next 12-24 months, there will be a 5-4 decision to overturn Roe and leave abortion decisions up to states.  Most likely, same-sex marriage will follow.  A lot of federal rights will be returned to states, and a lot of states will say no to these rights.

It's not going to be a fun time for America.  And it won't be entirely Susan Collins's fault, but she's playing her part right now.  Don't be fooled for a moment.