Neil Gorsuch, Politics, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

Making SCOTUS Even Greater: Trump's Supplemental Supreme Court Shortlist

A closer look at the ten new names on Donald Trump's SCOTUS list.

onSeptember 26, 2016 at 3:45 PMMay 1, 2017 at 2:43 PM

As you have probably heard, Donald Trump recently issued a list of ten more people that he would consider for the U.S. Supreme Court if elected president. This list can be seen as a supplement to the SCOTUS slate that he released in May, making his shortlist… not that short.

To a cynic, the new list could be viewed as a desperate attempt by Trump, ahead of tonight’s big debate, to remind conservatives that despite all their misgivings about him, at least he will appoint justices more to their liking than President Hillary Clinton. In his press release announcing the names, Trump declares, “This list is definitive, and I will choose only from it in picking future Justices of the United States Supreme Court.” But given Trump’s constantly shifting positions, one can question the wisdom of relying on his promises.

For what it’s worth, it’s a solid list for conservatives. When Trump released his first list back in May, I noted that his potential picks seemed to reflect input from the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. In his press release for this second list, Trump explicitly thanks the two groups, bellwethers of the legal right, for their contributions.

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Trump’s first list was almost evenly divided between federal and state judges — six federal, five state — and the second list is similar, with five federal judges and four state judges (plus one U.S. senator). The first list was heavily male — eight men, three women — and the second list is even more skewed, with just one woman and nine men.

I previously pointed out the lack of racial and ethnic diversity on Trump’s first list, and the second list seems to address that concern. As noted by Nina Totenberg, the new list “is more racially and ethnically diverse — [it includes] one African-American state court judge, a Venezuelan-born federal judge, and another federal judge of South Asian descent.”

Who are those three judges, as well as the seven other lucky individuals to make it onto Trump’s new and improved SCOTUS shortlist? Flip to the next page for the names….