We will soon know whether the three justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that our 45th President of the United States (POTUS) Donald Trump appointed during his first term will affirm most, if not all, of his efforts to ‘drain the swamp’ during his second term in office.

Today, SCOTUS is comprised of six justices appointed by Republican presidents:

Justice Clarence Thomas, nominated by President Bush, the elder, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Samuel Alito, appointed by President Bush, the younger, and justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, nominated by President Trump. The three remaining justices are Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, appointed by President Obama, and Ketanji Brown, nominated by President Biden.

Given the fact that the Democrats are hell-bent on using the courts in their attempt to block virtually every move that Donald Trump makes, it is a virtual certainty that the final say on many of these matters will belong to the Supreme Court. The three justices appointed by Democrat presidents are highly likely, if not guaranteed, to vote against Trump. Of the six Republican-appointed jurists, Clarence Thomas is the only sure thing for our President. Roberts and Alito have shown themselves to be less than loyal to the party that gave them their positions on SCOTUS, and the three Trump appointees have occasionally disagreed with the President in their decisions. That is, of course, the way it should be.

It is reprehensible that Supreme Court justices can be ideology-driven, progressive activists in the manner Sotomayor, Kagan, and Brown have shown themselves to be. SCOTUS was created to interpret the law, not make law by fiat. To their credit, and often to the chagrin of the men who appointed them, the justices placed on the court by Republicans have taken their responsibility and the constitutional intent for their positions, more seriously than the Democrat appointees. They have not always voted along so-called party lines. They were placed in their positions to use their judgement, knowledge and understanding of the law to do their Constitutional duty to our Republic. Lockstep partisanship should never be part of that process.

By taking those duties seriously, it is understandable that they might occasionally disagree, not only with the party of the President who appointed them, but also among themselves. The Republican appointees were, however, all appointed by Presidents of a more conservative bent than those justices appointed by Obama and Biden. The process by which they were selected for nomination involved an in-depth study of their previous legal decisions and pronouncements. Thus, a Republican appointee is far more likely to be conservative than not, but there are no guarantees that any justice will automatically agree with President Trump.

Foolish rulings made as no more than delaying roadblocks, such as the one issued by Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, attempting to keep Trump-appointed Treasury officials from accessing information necessary for them to do their jobs, will likely be overturned before reaching SCOTUS. Engelmayer’s ruling was in response to a request from multiple state attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, an avowed enemy of Donald Trump. The ruling has prompted the initiation of articles of impeachment against the judge by Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), citing judicial overreach and gross partisanship. If this case were somehow to reach SCOTUS, it would be a no-brainer for the court. It is even conceivable that one of the Democrat-appointed justices would suffer a lapse of partisanship and recognize the case for the sham that it is. Conceivable, but not likely.

Other cases likely to be brought before SCOTUS will not be such obviously partisan political warfare on the part of the Democrats. Questions of tenure and permanence of bureaucratic positions which President Trump would like to eliminate, or personnel he would like to replace will provide multiple possibilities for court intervention.

Democrats are desperate to derail, or at least slow, the Trump train. They will use left-leaning lower court judges to try to stop every move the President makes. Those cases will inevitably make their way to the highest court in the land. Hopefully, the conservative (read responsible, fair, logical, and law-abiding) justices will rule for President Trump, and thus, for the voters who returned him to office. If not, it will be a very long four years. Let’s hope that Donald Trump, our 47th President, remains pleased with Donald Trump, our 45th President’s SCOTUS selections.

Bill Hansmann is a dentist and dental educator with over fifty years in the profession. He continues to teach and write political blogs and semi-mediocre novels while living with his wife and cats in Georgia.

Image: Supreme Court