Justice Kennedy retires, giving Trump 2nd pick for top US court
With Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing his retirement at the end of July from the highest court in the United States, US President Donald Trump says he will nominate a replacement from a list of 25 for the lifetime appointment.
The Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the Unites States of America. (AP)Justice Anthony Kennedy’s announcement on Wednesday that he will retire at the end of July gives US President Donald Trump his second opportunity to deepen his imprint on the nation’s highest court after restoring its 5-4 conservative majority last year with the selection of Neil Gorsuch.
Here are five of the top contenders as seen by Reuters, and the others on Trump’s list of nominees for the lifetime appointment.
Brett Kavanaugh - Maryland US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the Maryland US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is on Trump's list for the Supreme Court. (AP)Kavanaugh, 53, was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003 by Republican President George W Bush.
Contentious confirmation hearings in the Senate delayed his confirmation until 2006.
Kavanaugh worked for Bush during the recount of the 2000 presidential election result.
He then headed the administration’s search for potential judicial nominees.
Prior to that, he helped draft the “Starr report” recommending the impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
Amy Coney Barrett - Indiana 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Indiana 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals is on Trump's list for the US Supreme Court. (Screenshot via C-Span)Trump in May 2017 appointed 46-year-old Barrett to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
She was confirmed by the Senate in October 2017.
She was most recently a professor at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.
During one of her committee confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats questioned Barrett about her Catholicism and past writings in which she said Catholic judges were in a “legal bind” in cases related to abortion and the death penalty. The questioning led the conservative group Judicial Crisis Network to produce a digital ad attacking the Democrats.
Thomas Hardiman - Pennsylvania 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals
US Judge Thomas Hardiman of the Pennsylvania 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals is on Trump's list for the Supreme Court. (AP)Hardiman, 52, was appointed in 2007 to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia by then-President George W Bush.
Since then, Hardiman has drawn criticism from liberals for a dissenting opinion in a gun control case, which the Alliance for Justice legal advocacy group said suggested he would take an “exceptional broad view of the Second Amendment” to the US Constitution, which gives Americans the right to keep and bear firearms.
Raymond Kethledge - Michigan 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Raymond Kethledge of Michigan 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals is on Trump's list for the Supreme Court. (Matt Wood Areaman17/WikimediaCommons)Kethledge, 51, was named by George W Bush in 2006 to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and confirmed in 2008.
Prior to that, he spent most of his career in private practice.
One Kethledge ruling that gained attention was against the US Internal Revenue Service in a case brought by conservative Tea Party groups that said the agency had targeted them because of their political views.
Amul Thapar - Kentucky 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Amul Thapar of the Kentucky 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals is on Trump's list for the Supreme Court. (AP)Thapar, 49, is a judge on the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, nominated by Trump and confirmed in May 2017.
He was previously a judge on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Thapar is best known for sentencing in 2014 an 84-year-old nun to three years in prison for breaking into a Tennessee military facility used to store enriched uranium for nuclear bombs.
The nun was convicted along with two other anti-nuclear activists.
Other possible nominees on Trump’s 25-person list:
Keith Blackwell - Supreme Court of Georgia
Charles Canady - Supreme Court of Florida
Steven Colloton - 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Allison Eid - 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Britt Grant - Supreme Court of Georgia
Raymond Gruender - 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Joan Larsen - 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Mike Lee - Republican US senator from Utah
Thomas Lee - Supreme Court of Utah
Edward Mansfield - Supreme Court of Iowa
Federico Moreno - US District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Kevin Newsom - 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals
William Pryor - 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Margaret Ryan - US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
David Stras - 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Diane Sykes - 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Timothy Tymkovich - 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Robert Young - Supreme Court of Michigan, retired
Don Willett - 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Patrick Wyrick - Supreme Court of Oklahoma
The heads of the Left are exploding.
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Judge Lance Ito.
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