Radio Recap – Analysis: Pres. Trump Makes Additions to SCOTUS Shortlist
President Trump expanded his list of potential Supreme Court nominees and he called for Vice President Biden to do the same.
On today’s Jay Sekulow Live, we discussed President Trump’s announcement of twenty additional names to his Supreme Court shortlist for a potential vacancy. Our team provided analysis of these additional names. Notable inclusions are Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Josh Hawley.
While making his announcement, the President stated how important is is to appoint good justices to the Supreme Court:
Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice is the most important decision an American President can make. For this reason candidates for President owe the American people a specific list of individuals they consider for the United States Supreme Court.
President Trump continued:
By the end of my first term, we will have confirmed a record number of federal judges, over 300, all of whom will faithfully uphold our Constitution as written.
President Trump added twenty names to his potential list of Supreme Court appointees. That list is comprised of eligible candidates he would choose from if a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court were to become vacant. Here’s the list:
Daniel Cameron, Attorney General of Kentucky
Senator Ted Cruz
Senator Tom Cotton
Senator Josh Hawley
Bridget Bade, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Paul Clement, former U.S. solicitor general
Stuart Kyle Duncan, 5th Circuit judge
Stephen Engel, assistant attorney general
Noel Francesco, former solicitor general
James Ho, 5th Circuit judge
Gregory Katsas, D.C. Circuit judge
Barbara Lagoa, 11th Circuit judge
Christopher Landau, U.S. ambassdor to Mexico
Carlos Muniz, Florida Supreme Court
Martha Packold, Northern District of Illinois judge
Peter Phipps, 3rd Circuit judge
Sarah Pitlyk, Eastern District of Missouri judge
Allison Jones Rushing, 4th Circuit judge
Kate Todd, deputy assistant to the president
Lawrence Van Dyke, 9th Circuit judge
If a vacancy comes up during his current term, this list and the twenty-five names that the President had previously named, would all be in contention. Of course, if he’s re-elected it is very likely President Trump will have to make at least one more appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. The President is being fully transparent, giving everybody plenty of time to look at these names and to go through their backgrounds. Clearly, he’s not afraid of the other side having the time to go through their backgrounds as well.
As I mentioned, the President called on Vice President Biden to share his shortlist as well. There are liberal groups calling for that as well. I think Vice President Biden’s campaign might actually be worried about releasing such a list, thinking that their list of names would be so far out of the mainstream, they would become campaign ads on their own. That could be a liability to the campaign with the American people.
The full broadcast is complete with more analysis of the additions President Trump has made to the shortlist of potential nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court if a seat becomes vacant. We were also joined by ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Public Policy, Ric Grenell. Ric talked about Antifa targeting a Pro-Life leader. Ric also wrote a blog on the subject, which you can read here.
Watch the full broadcast below.