President Donald Trump’s promised list of reliably conservative jurists to give his backers hope after Supreme Court losses on abortion and LGBTQ protections this summer has aides and outside advisers increasingly divided over its content and length, Politico reported on Monday.
Trump made the promise with the intent that the list would boost Republican turnout in the November election and remind religious conservatives what’s at stake as the country’s culture wars heat up.
But some want him to cut out many of the existing 25 names on the list to get rid of those with limited records from which to judge their judicial philosophy and blocking fresh appointees to the federal court system from being added.
“The main thing that needs to happen is to cut the list way down by removing anyone who has not been proven to be a rock-ribbed conservative,” said a Republican close to the White House. “The whole purpose of the list is to give hardline conservatives a guarantee that we will not be betrayed again.”
The “betrayal” he is talking about is concerns about Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch - two GOP-appointed members of the high court who angered party officials with their roles in two recent cases: one striking down a Louisiana law that would have dramatically curtailed abortion access, the other extending workplace discrimination protections to LGBTQ Americans.
However, others argue that an expanded list will only help Trump if he wins , because it vacancies arise, larger, more diverse pool is preferable to a short list of older candidates.
Others critics say it’s not the list that needs to be changed, but the process of evaluating candidates before they’re even placed under serious consideration.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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