Oklahoma Attorney General Responsible For Two Terrible Supreme Court Decisions Loses Gubernatorial Primary

It is often said that A.G. is short for “Aspiring Governor.” Such was the case in Oklahoma, where Attorney General Gentner Drummond ran for the Republican Gubernatorial Primary. The AP has now called the race, and Drummond lost by less than a percentage point.

I usually do not comment on political races, but Drummond deserves some heat.

First, Drummond argued that his own state’s charter school program was unconstitutional. He litigated St. Isidore up to the Supreme Court where the case was affirmed by an equally-divided court. President Trump even mentioned this case in his social media endorsement of Drummond’s opponent: “He even SUED to BLOCK a religious based charter school strongly supported by my Administration — Very troubling for Educational Freedom, and an outright attack on Christianity!”

Second, Drummond hired his lifelong friend to review the capital conviction of Richard Glossip. Drummond then asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate the death sentence. That court refused to revisit the case. Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled that the OCCA had misinterpreted federal law. There were so many problems with that case. But even more troubling, as my colleague Paul Cassell pointed out, is Drummond’s own conduct. Justice Thomas wrote in his dissent that Drummond “collusively excluded . . . highly relevant evidence” from the record.

To add insult to injury, Drummond also seemed to support Justice Gorsuch’s disastrous decision in McGirt. Based on the electoral map, Indian country seemed to vote strongly against Drummond.

As the returns stand now, only 2,000 votes separate Drummond and his opponent. I’d like to think that some of those votes are due to the positions Drummond took before the courts.