With predatory monopoly power from Big Hollywood and Big Tech on the rise and the opportunity to instill constitutional conservatives peaking to the highest it's been in recent memory, the Senate Judiciary Committee is facing a pivotal year this congressional session.  With Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) recently taking over the duties of chairman, things will certainly be changing, but for better or for worse?

Although Sen. Graham has a history of bouncing between the moderate and conservative sides of the GOP spectrum, Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination hearings seem to have awakened something buried deep down inside him.  I witnessed it personally. 

The day prior to the reconvening of the Kavanaugh hearing, I was in Senator Graham's office with about 15 other constituents.  He was genuinely upset with the lies and tactics of the left as I had never seen in him before.  After 45 minutes of conversation and the obligatory parting photo, I jokingly said, "Give 'em hell tomorrow, senator."  He blushed a bit and nodded his head in agreement, then went about his way.  The following day, he did, in fact, give 'em hell and surprised the hell out of me!  I could hear constituents and patriots all across America shouting, "Hell yeah!" from in front of their TV screens.  Social media lit up for Lindsey like the grand finale of a Fourth of July fireworks display.

Graham's shift from moderate to stalwart conservative – whether permanent or temporary – has been quite the welcome change.  The senator seems to agree: "I stepped up, and I'm getting rewarded for it by conservatives, and liberals are all upset."  Now that the new and improved Senator Graham has taken the helm of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the question has become, what should we expect from him?  What agenda items should he keep at the top of his to-do list to ensure that his Trumpian instincts remain a chief driver of the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda?

The first point of order should undoubtedly be the president's judicial nominees.  Graham needs to push the White House's future court appointments just as hard as he fought for Kavanaugh.  In a seemingly petty act of defiance, liberals in the government have slow-rolled President Trump's nominees – not merely within the judicial branch, but for other vital government positions as well. Last week, the White House re-nominated 51 judicial nominees who were never confirmed in the previous Congress.  Graham, the newly minted chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, must subvert this logjam and ensure that constitutional conservatives are confirmed in America's key judicial seats.  

There is also the potential Ginsburg vacancy due to her failing health.  When that happens, Senator Graham will be in a position to shepherd through another conservative appointment from the president.  

Aside from these judicial nominations, Senator Graham will also have the opportunity to take on the liberal elite of Hollywood.  Recently, Hollywood apologists have been advocating that the federal government remove particular restrictions preventing elites in the music industry, which donated close to 90 percent of their money to Democrat causes last year, from making use of predatory business practices.  These little-known regulations, called the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees, have stopped the unionized Hollywood elite from hosing their customers for over half a decade and must remain in place.  It's up to Chairman Graham to stand up to the liberal elite by calling a hearing into the ASCAP/BMI consent decree matter and working to guide the DOJ to the right decision.

The last big-ticket item for the newly reformed Chairman Graham is going to be tackling the issues surrounding Big Tech.  This is an arena in which Graham has experience.  Last year, the Senator grilled Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the company's monopolistic tendencies and its inability to self-regulate.  Moving forward, Graham should prioritize investigating Big Tech's unfortunate habit of censoring conservative voices as well as the industry's failure to protect user data adequately.  That way, Graham will be able to lay bare the industry's blatant discrimination tactics, which curb the free speech and expression.  It is critical that he protect the American people's basic constitutional rights from these behemoths. 

Most conservative analysts consider these issues of confirming judicial nominees and restraining Big Hollywood and Big Tech abuse as critical pieces of the limited government agenda, so it is essential that Sen. Graham step up to the plate and deliver on them.  We pray that he will.  It's his opportunity of a lifetime to redeem his reputation with a cynical electorate here in South Carolina.

Pressley Stutts is a retired Navy chaplain; the chairman on the Greenville, S.C. Tea Party; a member of the S.C. State Board of Directors of the Republican Liberty Caucus; and a candidate for Greenville County GOP chairman.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.