In a move by Donald Trump, the conservative president has found it incumbent on himself to show his core voters and many in the conservative GOP party that he may be ready to shape the voting habits of the U.S. Supreme Court for decades to come. Although it is normal for a president to have a list of potential Supreme Court candidates ready should one retire or unexpectedly pass away in office, Donald Trump has potentially made sure that his people know he is on task with the Supreme Court.
As many may recall, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead early last year while Barack Obama was still the president. With nearly a year left in Obama’s final term in office, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell also made a move in denying his nomination a fair hearing in the Senate, instead opting to wait for the next president to make a nomination. That next president would turn out to be none other than Donald Trump and as soon as he nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court vacancy, McConnell wasted no time getting Gorsuch’s confirmation through the Senate for a permanent seat on the Supreme Court.
Many have seen Gorsuch as the most conservative justice currently serving on the Supreme Court, according to a report by Reuters . But in all, the Supreme Court is top heavy with conservative justices by a five to four margin over liberal justices after Donald Trump’s appointment.
There are currently three Supreme Court justices over the age of 79. Two of those Supreme Court justices are liberal (Stephen Breyer is 79 and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg is 84) and one of them (Anthony Kennedy is 81) is a conservative who sometimes sides with liberals, most recently with gay marriage.
Although none of the older Supreme Court justices have indicated they are stepping down, it seems as though Donald Trump is getting primed and ready to replace any of the three most likely candidates by releasing his list of five prospective picks. Trump’s list includes Amy Coney Barrett, Kevin Newsom, Brett Kavanaugh, Britt Grant, and Patrick Wyrick.
Trump adds five conservatives to list of possible Supreme Court picks https://t.co/UJQyYgfFcc pic.twitter.com/qJ93ExmadF
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) November 18, 2017
Just to be clear, there are not currently any openings on the Supreme Court, but Donald Trump has still released his list of prospective picks to fill a role on the federal judiciary when the opportunity presents itself.
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