Donald Trump has released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees that seems designed to placate his conservative critics. It suggests the presumptive Republican nominee has no interest in breaking the mold when it comes to the lifetime appointments on the court.
It is a safe list. All are sitting judges nominated by Republicans, some on federal and some on state courts. All appear to be white; seven are men, and four are women. And all 11 are listed as experts on website of the conservative Federalist Society, a key legal arbiter for the right.
Five of the 11 are state Supreme Court justices, which do not have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and thus often fly relatively under the radar. All of the federal judges were appointed by President George W. Bush.
The list also provides a stark contrast to the judicial philosophy already outlined by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, though she has named no names. Presidential candidates usually speak in more general terms and don’t issue actual lists, but Trump bears the burden of proving to conservatives that he won’t crush their dreams of a lifetime appointment who shares their values. For example, one potential nominee, William Pryor, referred to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which recognized a right to abortion nationwide, the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.”
As for Trump’s own judicial philosophy, in the second of three positions he took in a single day on abortion, Trump himself said the issue “should be put back to the states for determination,” a rough approximation of some conservatives’ critique of Roe. Trump, whose sister is a federal judge, also seemed unclear on the role of judges when he said she had “signed that bill.” (Judges rule on questions of law and do not sign bills.) He also said of his potential Supreme Court picks, “I would wanna see scholars, but I think more than my asking, I would go on references of other people that I respect. Because that is not necessarily my world. I’m very much into the world of legal and legality. But, that is not my world, so I would go to people that I have great respect for and say, ‘Who do you recommend?’”
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Members of the conservative movement have been skeptical. In March, conservative columnist George Will warned his fellow conservatives that Donald Trump could not be trusted with the Supreme Court. “There is every reason to think that Trump understands none of the issues pertinent to the Supreme Court’s role in the American regime, and there is no reason to doubt that he would bring to the selection of justices what he brings to all matters — arrogance leavened by frivolousness,” Will wrote.
Will may be relieved today. Texas state Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, on Trump’s list, is a judge Will declared should be the next Republican president’s nominee in a column last year. The reason for Will’s praise: Willett’s embrace in an opinion of the concept of “economic liberty,” which would potentially threaten many regulations of business passed in the name of health and safety, but which conservatives say simply harm competition.
Whether Willett welcomes Trump’s favor is an open question. Last June, the prolific tweeter offered the following haiku: “Donald Trump haiku— Who would the Donald Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels. *weeps—can’t finish tweet*.”
One of the guys Trump said he'd name to SCOTUS once said he "weeps" thinking about whom Trump would name to SCOTUS.. pic.twitter.com/7WYAm7k0b9
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) May 18, 2016
On a more serious note, Willett is a proponent of “judicial engagement.” In contrast to the long-dominant language among Republicans that judges should exercise restraint in striking down democratically enacted laws — rather than being so-called “activist judges — Willett declared in 2010 that “there is a profound difference between an activist judge and an engaged judge.” That means more readiness to strike down laws that the judge perceives to violate constitutional principles.
Here, a primer on the rest of the names:
Steven Colloton: A federal judge on the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Colloton clerked for former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Collotn also worked for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and in the George W., Bush Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Friends have described Colloton as a “virtual walking encyclopedia of the law.” But several rulings he has written or supported, including one that allowed religious institutions to avoid providing contraception coverage under Obamacare, have angered progressives. In one case, Colloton voted to uphold a South Dakota law that advised women having abortions that they were at increased risk of suicide. Colloton wrote a separate opinion to underscore that he was not persuaded by the evidence, including an American Psychological Association task force. He also has dissented from a string of 8th Circuit rulings that have protected the rights of employees, consumers and other groups. In one dissent, he argued that a city’s policy of using police dogs to bite and hold suspects without warning did not violate the Constitution.








