Skip to Main Content

Trump unveils 11 potential Supreme Court nominees

160518_donald_trump_1160_ap.jpg

Donald Trump has also previously said that the next president should be able to name Justice Antonin Scalia's replacement. | AP Photo

By Nick Gass

Updated:

Donald Trump on Wednesday released a list of 11 judges he would consider appointing to the Supreme Court, offering up a group of relatively tame conservative jurists apparently curated with the help of GOP leaders.

In an unusually restrained statement, Trump’s campaign offered up short bios of the judges and described the list as one assembled “first and foremost, based on constitutional principles, with input from highly respected conservatives and Republican Party leadership.”

The roster is made up of a combination of six George W. Bush appointees to federal appeals courts and five currently serving on their states’ highest courts — not exactly extreme choices from a candidate who has run such an unconventional race.

According to the campaign, the list includes: Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado, Raymond Gruender of Missouri, 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.

Willett in particular caught observers’ attention for his apparent kinship when it comes to Twitter. However, his feed includes some not-so-flattering assessments of the presumptive Republican nominee, including a reference to “Darth Trump” and a haiku dedicated to the prospect of Trump packing the highest court with his picks.

Absent from the list: Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a senior circuit judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Trump had suggested in February that his sister is “a highly brilliant woman, known as a great, you know, very brilliant judge.” But he added, “I don’t even know what her views are, and I don’t think she’d want to tell me.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Trump paid homage to late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whose death in February injected another high-stakes angle into the presidential race and provoked a showdown between President Barack Obama and the Senate.

“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 held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the Constitution of our country,” Trump said in a statement. “The following list of potential Supreme Court justices is representative of the kind of constitutional principles I value and, as President, I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court Justices.”

Three of the candidates on Trump’s list—Eid, Lee and Stras—are former law clerks to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, while Larsen clerked for Scalia. Another, Colloton, clerked for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Kethledge clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Of the 11 names on the list, all are white and none of them graduated from Harvard — the law school that has churned out the most justices in Supreme Court history. Only one graduated from an Ivy League institution — Yale.

Trump had previously mentioned both Pryor and Sykes as possibilities for the list. Sykes’ ex-husband, Charlie Sykes, is a popular radio host in Wisconsin who had mounted a forceful #NeverTrump campaign against the candidate ahead of his state’s primary.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, the Wisconsin radio host said his two sons had just texted him “saying, well, I guess we didn’t ruin mom’s Supreme Court chances — yet.”

“I don’t really take Donald Trump that seriously. I don’t believe anything he says, but she would certainly be an outstanding choice,” Sykes said of his ex-wife, who previously served on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court.

Another political family connection — Lee’s brother, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who supported Senate colleague Ted Cruz in the Republican primary and as recently as last week said Trump “scares me to death,” as does Hillary Clinton.

George W. Bush appointed both Colloton and Gruender to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Pryor was appointed to the Eleventh Circuit in 2004, the same year Bush appointed Sykes to the Seventh Circuit. Bush appointed Hardiman to the Third Circuit in 2007 and Kethledge to the Sixth Circuit in 2008.

Colorado Republican Gov. Bill Owens tapped Eid to serve as the state’s 95th Supreme Court justice in 2006, while Larsen was appointed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder as an associate justice of Michigan’s Supreme Court in 2015. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert appointed Lee to the state Supreme Court in 2010, the same year Minnesota Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed Stras to Minnesota’s highest court. Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed Don Willett to the state’s Supreme Court in 2005.

The presumptive Republican nominee has periodically talked about his approach to the Supreme Court, saying in March that he would consider nominees who would “look very seriously” at Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state.

“What she’s getting away with is absolutely murder. You talk about a case — now that’s a real case,” Trump told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on March 30, adding, “If she’s able to get away with that, you can get away with anything.”

Trump has also previously said that the next president should be able to name Scalia’s replacement rather than have the Senate move forward on Merrick Garland’s nomination.

In a sign of how Trump’s picks mesh with conservative leaders, five of his names were included in The Heritage Foundation’s list of eight suggested names: Colloton, Sykes, Pryor, Gruender and Willett.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) noted fellow Iowan Colloton’s clerkship for Rehnquist in praising Trump’s list. “That ought to tell you something about him. If we have a Republican president, and if there hadn’t been a list out like this, I would’ve been suggesting him to be considered by the next president,” Grassley told POLITICO.

The conservative Judicial Crisis Network, which has staunchly opposed the nomination of Garland, praised Trump’s selections for seeming “to share in common a record of putting the law and the Constitution ahead of their political preferences,” while cautioning that of course, all of them would have to be vetted.

“The Court needs more Justices who will base their decisions on the law, not politics, even under pressure, especially since the next President is likely to determine the direction of the Court for a generation,” Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel and policy director said in a statement.

“It is also heartening to see so many Midwesterners and state court judges on the list — they would bring a valuable perspective to the bench, particularly since they have already served on a court of last resort in their own states,” Severino continued. “This list ought to be encouraging to anyone who prioritizes the rule of law, and I congratulate Mr. Trump on making a very significant policy statement about his desire to prioritize the future of the Supreme Court.”

The White House ripped Trump’s list without even reviewing the names.

“Let me make this observation: I would be surprised if there are any Democrats who would describe any of those 11 individuals as a consensus nominee,” press secretary Josh Earnest said, touting Garland as one who has been described as such by Republicans.

Despite being a name on Trump’s list, Willett, a prolific tweeter, has not shied away from sharing his feelings about the Manhattan real-estate magnate on his preferred medium.

On the day Trump announced his candidacy last June, Willett tweeted:

In August:

In March:

In April:

Josh Gerstein, Seung Min Kim and Nolan D. McCaskill contributed to this report.