Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees is making headlines for other reasons as well.
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Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says in a statement released Wednesday that Trump’s list is made up of judges who “understand and respect the fundamental principle that the role of the courts is limited and subject to the Constitution and the rule of law”. Now, he may be ready to name one of them to the Supreme Court.
William Pryor, in urging the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 to uphold a Texas law banning gay sex, argued against the notion that the U.S. Constitution should safeguard a person’s choice of partners.
President Obama has nominated U.S. Circuit Judge Merrick B. Garland to succeed Scalia, but Senate Republicans are refusing to consider him.
The Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, a progressive advocacy group, released a statement on the record of some of Trump’s options. He said he was “exercising judicial restraint” by not commenting and left.
Among the judicial candidates, Sykes, a judge on the federal appeals court in Chicago, is the oldest at 58, while Stras, a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court, is the youngest at 41. She also was an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Law before then-Republican Gov. Bill Owens appointed her to the state supreme court in 2006.
Conservatives, many of whom are skeptical about Trump, had wanted him to propose a list of potential court nominees as a sort of litmus test of his conservative credentials. Colloton served on the only appeals court panel that decided the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act impinged on the rights of religiously affiliated nonprofits.
While it is highly unusual for a presidential candidate to commit to a list of potential appointees, it is also unusual to have a high court opening during an election. Pryor has called Roe v. Wade the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law”. Still, he said, numerous judges are people Trump himself probably wouldn’t have come up with on his own.
“If anybody had any doubts-and I think a lot of people do have doubts-this will help settle that”, he continued.
Pryor was initially given a recess appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President George W. Bush.
Allison Eid, a Colorado Supreme Court justice, is on Donald Trump’s list of possible successors to the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
They allege the next president should have the right to appoint a justice, which led presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump to release his list of potential picks on Wednesday.
Sykes, who hails from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, once interviewed Justice Clarence Thomas in 2013 for a Federalist Society event.
Trump’s list also included another federal appeals court judge appointed by Bush, Thomas M. Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit. Judge Gruender, who sits in St. Louis, Missouri, has extensive prosecutorial experience, culminating with his time as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
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Trump’s list did not include some names that conservative groups had bandied about in recent weeks, including two GOP senators: Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas, who opposed Trump in the recent Republican primaries.
