Constitutional Opinion No. 2026-0718
Case Information
- Source
- The White House / Miller Center archive (millercenter.org)
- Author
- President Donald J. Trump (with Judge Amy Coney Barrett)
- Publication Date
- 2020-09-26
- Content Type
- Presidential Address
- Opinion Issued
- 2026-07-19
- AFCS Version
- 1.0
Holding
This is the companion to the swearing-in ceremony scored at the top of the record (0717, 84) — the nomination announcement a month earlier — and it is scored consistently, because its constitutional substance is the same, with two aligned commitments made even more explicit. The originalist core is identical: a judge must apply the law as written, judges are not policymakers; decisions based on the text of the Constitution as written; an express embrace of Justice Scalia's judicial philosophy — the Permanence of the Constitutional Order in originalist form (XVII). The rule of law is affirmed through the judicial oath to administer justice without respect to persons (XVIII), and judicial restraint is grounded in the judge's duty not to decide cases as you may prefer, deferring to the people's law rather than her own will (II). Where this announcement goes further than the swearing-in is in naming what such a Court protects: the President states the rulings ahead will decide the survival of our Second Amendment (VIII) and our religious liberty (XI) — two of the Standard's enumerated commitments invoked directly. The register is celebratory and dignified. The one honest Tier 2 deduction is the framing of a contested confirmation as straightforward and noncontroversial. Notable proximity to the November 5 election remarks (0715, 46): this celebration of the text of the Constitution as written (XVII 90) precedes by six weeks a speech that without evidence called a still-counting election stolen (XVII 48) — same author, and the Standard scores the constitutional fidelity of each. Tier 1 nets to 86; the result is 84 — America First, tied at the top of the record and identical to its companion ceremony, as like content warrants like treatment.
It is the judgment of this Court that Opinion No. 2026-0718 is hereby entered into the record, in accordance with the America First Constitutional Standard. The score stands. The reasoning is published. The record is public.