Carson: I’ll Consider The ‘Fruit Salad Of Their Life’ When Picking SCOTUS Nom

Carson CNN GOP Debate
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Dr. Ben Carson said Thursday night that the most important qualification he’d consider when selecting a new justice to nominate for the Supreme Court was “the fruit salad of their life.”

Carson got the last word in a wide-ranging exchange about the court’s role in promoting religious liberty during the CNN Republican presidential debate, making the case for selecting justices who have respected “religious freedom” throughout their careers.

“We’re going to have to encourage them to act in an appropriate way, or we will lose our religious freedom,” Carson said of the justices. “And as president, I will go through and I will look at what a person’s life has been. What have they done in the past, what kind of judgments have they made? What kind of associations do they have? That will tell you a lot more than an interview will tell you. The fruit salad of their life is what I will look at.”

Moderator Hugh Hewitt began the exchange by asking Donald Trump about the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Hobby Lobby case, but his line of questioning was quickly derailed. By the time Carson got to weigh in about how the court should protect religious liberty, the rest of the candidates on stage had already paid homage to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, criticized each other’s record on Obamacare and disavowed gay marriage.

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