Free Republic

She's the subject of a Hollywood biopic and is very much alive, but the White House has been in contact with Senate Republicans about possible replacements for the ailing 85-year old Supreme Court justice. The White House is even working on a short-list of possible nominees to replace Ginsburg, who broke her 25-year streak when she began missing oral arguments on Monday. The White House counsel's office is even trading names with the office of new Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham. Politico published a list of them Thursday. The short list of potential replacements for the ailing Ginsburg include...

Judge Hardiman isn't the frontrunner, but he would also be an excellent SCOTUS pick -- and if he doesn't get it, he's okay with that. Here’s where we stand on the search for a Supreme Court nominee to succeed Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, according to John Roberts of Fox News (which is about as close as one can get to an official news outlet for the Trump Administration): "John Roberts ✔ @johnrobertsFox Sources tell @FoxNews that the White House is preparing 4 rollout packages for @realDonaldTrump nomination announcement. The 4 are Kavanaugh, Kethledge, Barrett.......and.......Thomas Hardiman 8:16 AM - Jul 6,...

Sekulow says he'll be on Hannity after the selection announced. He says that the list is actually 4 and that Hardiman is one of the top 4 with Barrett, Kavenaugh, and Kethledge.

As President Donald Trump moves closer to nominating a Supreme Court justice, Democrats are scrambling for a strategy to stop a nominee that would tilt the court in a more conservative direction and reverse liberal gains. The retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy was a swing voter who at times sided with the court’s liberal and conservative wings. Trump now has the chance to alter the court’s ideological balance in a manner that could reshape fundamental aspects of American life. (TWEET-AT-LINK) Liberals fear their favored positions on everything from abortion rights to marriage equality to affirmative action could be threatened. Some also...

Democrats are in a state of sheer panic. They're panicking because last week, Justice Anthony Kennedy -- a reliable vote in favor of certain leftist priorities including abortion and same-sex marriage -- announced that he will step down from the Supreme Court, leaving President Trump a second selection. This apparently will lead to the end of a free America. According to Jeffrey Toobin of CNN, the remade Supreme Court will spell doom: "Abortion illegal, doctors prosecuted, gay people barred from restaurants, hotels, stores; African-Americans out of elite schools, gun control banned in 50 states, the end of regulatory state." None...

One day after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement, a group calling itself Demand Justice staged a rally outside the court's front steps. Activists who said they support civil rights and abortion rights mixed with Democratic senators. They were angry that, after declining to convene a vote on President Barack Obama's nominee for the court, the Republican Senate majority leader now is set to confirm the second justice nominated by President Trump. "Mitch McConnell, shame on you, the people deserve a say too," the protesters chanted. Sara Chieffo brought along her tiny daughter, Lucy. Chieffo said she was...

Justice Kennedy was a fierce defender of the First Amendment. As he explained in one of his last opinions on the bench, the government “must not be allowed to force persons to express a message contrary to their deepest convictions. Freedom of speech secures freedom of thought and belief.” Not many can fill Justice Kennedy’s shoes when it comes to the First Amendment. But one who might is Justice Kennedy’s former law clerk: Judge Raymond Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit. Court watchers love comparing nominees to sitting justices. Judge Kethledge’s writing reminds me of the Chief’s. His focus on statutory...

Can I call him a “dark horse” when every news report about Trump’s shortlist includes him? I like the term in this case just because all, and I do mean all, of the chatter on the right since Kennedy’s vacancy has been about Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, with Kethledge seemingly in the it’s-an-honor-just-to-be-nominated category.But that may have changed with yesterday’s presidential interviews.I’m momentarily in the same position vis-a-vis Kethledge as I was with Gorsuch last year — heard his name a few times before, don’t know much about him, but the more I learn the more I...

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday, precipitating a cataclysmic election year confirmation battle. Though the White House has publicly identified as many as 25 possible candidates to succeed Kennedy, the early favorites for the pick are drawn from a small crop of young appeals court judges popular in Washington’s conservative legal circles. Speaking in the Oval Office shortly after Kennedy’s announcement, Trump confirmed he would draw his selection from a list of possible Supreme Court nominees assembled during the campaign. Five individuals were added to that list in November 2017. These early favorites include...

Today Donald J. Trump released the much-anticipated list of people he would consider as potential replacements for Justice Scalia at the United States Supreme Court. This list was compiled, first and foremost, based on constitutional principles, with input from highly respected conservatives and Republican Party leadership. Mr. Trump stated, “Justice Scalia was a remarkable person and a brilliant Supreme Court Justice. His career was defined by his reverence for the Constitution and his legacy of protecting Americans’ most cherished freedoms. He was a Justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I...

Don Willett is a Texas Supreme Court justice:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Willett David Stras is an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stras Allison Eid is a justice on the Colorado Supreme Court:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H._Eid Joan Larsen is a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Larsen Steven Colloton is a federal judge who has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Colloton Raymond Gruender is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Gruender Thomas Hardiman is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardiman Raymond M. Kethledge is a federal judge...

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump said in March he planned to release the list to ease concerns about his conservative credentials...

Trump's picks include Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado and Raymond Gruender of Missouri. Also on the list are: Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Trump had previously named Pryor and Sykes as examples of kind of justices he would choose.

The names are at the link.