President Trump says he’ll make his first Supreme Court nomination next week, and it will be a telling moment. The power to fill the High Court seat left vacant by the death of Antonin Scalia is a major reason Mr. Trump won the election, and the right choice is vital to keeping faith with conservative voters.
Mr. Trump understands this, as he showed with his campaign list of 21 talented potential nominees. The White House appears to have whittled the list down to three appellate court judges. All three look distinguished before close inspection and would face a rough confirmation assault from the left. But it’s a particular shame that Judge William Pryor is taking abuse from some on the right for the sin of acting like a good conservative judge.
Judge Pryor, who is 54 years old, is a star on the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and may be the closest of the three to Justice Clarence Thomas in philosophy. He has a long record of conservative jurisprudence, and he has displayed the kind of judicial modesty and respect for precedent that the Constitution intends for appellate judges.
This seems to have upset some on the right who prefer their judges to act like liberals and rule by policy preferences, not the law. They’ve criticized Judge Pryor for concurring in 2011 in Glenn v. Brumby in which a transgender male was fired when he began his transition to a woman. The employee sued claiming sex discrimination in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the 11th Circuit panel upheld the lower-court decision in favor of him who became a her.
Whatever one thinks of the LGBT agenda, Judge Pryor’s decision showed appropriate deference to Supreme Court precedent. The 11th Circuit’s decision faithfully followed the Supreme Court’s 1989 ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that sex discrimination can also exist in the form of hostile sex stereotyping. Conservatives should want circuit-court judges to follow Supreme Court precedent—and it’s a sign of how a judge will treat the law if he’s elevated to the Supremes.