The One Question Trump’s Judicial Picks Refuse to Answer

Mr. Toobin is a contributing Opinion writer and the author of “The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy.”

A vivid illustration of the way that President Trump has degraded the nation’s political discourse will be on view when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its next hearing on Wednesday on his nominees to the federal courts. As has become his custom, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, will ask prospective judges virtually the same simple question and will, in all likelihood, receive virtually the same astonishing answer in return.

In one recent enactment of the ritual, Mr. Blumenthal........

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