THE DAY – It is Supreme Court day, and that's sad.  It's sad that the appointment of one justice, to be announced by President Trump at 9 p.m. ET tonight, is arousing so much tension, controversy...and hatred.

It wasn't that way at one time, although the Court has always had its moments of controversy.  FDR tried to pack the Court during his second term, frustrated by the hostility of some justices toward his New Deal measures.  He failed.  The American people wouldn't have it.

The Court erupted in controversy when it ruled segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954.  The South hated the decision, and the choice of justices became an issue in politics.  That trend was strengthened in 1962, when the Court again offended sensibilities in its famous "school prayer" decision, which actually only said that the state could not impose prayers on public schools.

But it wasn't really until Roe v. Wade, the famous abortion decision, in 1973, that the Court became the political presence that it is today. The reason, of course, is that school segregation and school prayer are logical issues for a federal court, as they involve interpretation of Constitutional protections.  On the other hand, abortion was traditionally seen, and is still seen by many today, as a social issue, a matter of personal morality, not subject to judicial review. 

The same with the issue of gay marriage.  Why would a Court decide on an issue of personal, religious, and traditional morality?  But it did.

So the Court today is seen as a place where people with social causes, which may well be legitimate, can come for relief.  In my view, no matter how you feel about particular issues, that trend has damaged the Court severely, made it a political branch of the government, and lowered its prestige.

President Trump has promised to appoint a strict constructionist, in the tradition of Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was his first appointment to the Supreme Court.  We'll know tonight.

July 9,  2018