1. Thomas Lee, UT Supreme Court, 53. Diamond-solid on constitutionalism, more so perhaps than anyone on the list under the age of 60. Clerked for Thomas. Prolific writer and good persuader-of-fellow-Justices. Downsides: No "diversity" bonus; Utah is solid red already; and his brother, Sen. Mike Lee, would have to recuse himself from consideration of his brother's nomination.
2. David Stras, MN Supreme Court, 42. Clerked for Luttig then Clarence Thomas. Yeah, another white dude (so not much "diversity"), but like Gorsuch he is an affable law professor and will be hard to demonize. And Minnesota is an increasingly purple state.
3. Allison Eid, CO Supreme Court, 52. Another Thomas clerk. Looks like a soccer mom; affable, gregarious. Partial downside: We just confirmed a Coloradan!
4. Amul Thapar, District of Kentucky federal trial judge (about to be elevated to Sixth Circuit), 47. Frequent Federalist Society speaker. It will be hard for Dems to Bork the first Indian-American nominee.
My picks assume that Trump is not in deep doo-doo politically. If he is, there are some great "fallback" picks on his "list of 21" that, largely because they are much older, will be harder to reject. (That's what Obama was thinking with Merrick Garland, by the way.)
Time and winning heals all wounds. I just couldn’t sustain my anger at Cruz.
Cruz would be a HELL of a SCOTUS Justice. Knows the USC inside and out and will NOT let it get crapped on like the ugly 4 (+ Roberts at least once) have!
Right now there isn’t another vacancy so they should focus full steam ahead on filling the vacancies in the appellate and district courts...while the map looks good for 2018, nothing is a guarantee. We know we have the majority now and should use it while we know we have it.
I really don’t care what Trump does over the next 8 years, so long as we get 2 more at bats for SCOTUS.
Except for Syria we have been winning everyday for 76 days.
I’ll forgive Syria easily.
Needs to be a woman, that will keep the moderates on board and might bring some Dems on board too. Especially if it happens before the 2018 elections
5. Is picking this judge going to help Trump / the GOP down the road? (E.g., picking Gorsuch, from Colorado, may help swing that purple state into the red.)
Suggested addition: Is picking this judge going to help the United States of America down the road?
People around here seriously need to start thinking like this is Chess and not checkers.
So many here say “No” to Cruz, then silent on Gorsuch. Well I mightily hope that Gorsuch is okay with his Episcopalian gay friendly church, but we don’t really know, do we?
We know Cruz, warts and all. So those who are okay with an unknown because you don’t like Cruz — people think there is some ideal or close to perfect (this also happens when visualizing some unknown potential mate) — wake up. Please.
Somehow I don’t think your priorities and short list align with Jared and Ivanka’s...
There are currently 126 vacant federal judgeships that require filling. Since SCOTUS only hears about 1% of the cases brought before it, these lower court positions are just as important as SCOTUS for limiting legislating from the bench, and adhering to the strict and narrow interpretation of the Constitution.
I want to see a list of nominees put forth for these 126 positions ASAP.
Trump should throw a trail ballon out there that he might nominate Merrick Garland just to watch Chuckles Schumer head explode...
Just kidding chuckie....
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