Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court all claimed to have an open mind about Roe v. Wade. But they came to the Senate Committee already tainted from their contact with Trump, and are, like Trump, not to be trusted. And it wouldn’t have taken much imagination to conclude that in any deliberation about reproductive rights they would be guided by their own religious and political positions.

Trump and McConnell had, by a mixture of good luck and native shamelessness, managed to pack the Supreme Court, but they could not have succeeded in doing so if their nominees had told the truth to the Senate Committee. Two of Trump’s appointments added to the other reactionary Roman Catholics create a right-wing Catholic majority on the Court: Thomas, Roberts, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. These justices, given the kind of Catholic they are, are barred by personal convictions from supporting Roe v. Wade, whatever they may have told the Senate about an open mind.

I wonder if an earlier Catholic justice, the now much reviled Roger B. Taney of Dred Scott fame, would have been more candid with the Senate.