Donald Trump Supreme Court candidates

President Donald Trump began his four-year term in January 2017 with a vacancy to be filled as a result of the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the Republican-controlled Senate's months-long refusal to consider the Democratic previous President Barack Obama's nomination of United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland to replace Scalia. As three of the Court's justices at the time—Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born 1933), Anthony Kennedy (born 1936) and Stephen Breyer (born 1938)—were aged 78 or older, speculation arose that additional vacancies could occur during Trump's term. Because Ginsburg and Breyer were part of the liberal wing of the court and Kennedy was a swing vote who often aligned with them on social issues, many top political analysts saw Trump's term as a chance for Republicans to reshape the court significantly towards a more conservative vision of the law. On June 27, 2018, this became a real possibility when Justice Kennedy officially announced his retirement. Following the death of Ginsburg on September 18, 2020, and the subsequent confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett on October 26, 2020, the Supreme Court had the following nine justices at the time of Trump's 2020 reelection loss: ==Nomination of Neil Gorsuch==

of the White House On February 13, 2016, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died while vacationing at Cibolo Creek Ranch near Marfa, Texas. Scalia's death marked just the second time in 60 years that a sitting Supreme Court justice died. This resulted in there being a Supreme Court vacancy during the last year of Barack Obama's presidency. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, stated that the new president, whoever won the 2016 election, should replace Scalia, while President Obama stated that he planned to nominate someone to replace Scalia on the Supreme Court. On February 23, the 11 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed a letter to McConnell stating their intention to withhold consent on any nominee made by Obama, and that no hearings would occur until after January 20, 2017, when the new president took office. On March 16, 2016, Obama nominated then-chief judge Merrick Garland of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to replace Scalia. After Garland's nomination, McConnell reiterated his position that the Senate would not consider any Supreme Court nomination until a new president took office. Trump rejected any move by Obama to fill the vacancy, maintaining that picking a successor to Scalia should be done by the next president. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump released two lists of potential Supreme Court nominees. On May 18, 2016, he released a short list of 11 judges for nomination to the Scalia vacancy. At the time of the nomination, Gorsuch, Hardiman, and Pryor were all federal appellate judges who had been appointed by President George W. Bush. President Trump and White House counsel Don McGahn interviewed those three individuals as well as Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Kentucky in the weeks before the nomination. Trump announced Gorsuch as his nominee on January 31. The Senate confirmed Gorsuch by a 54–45 vote on April 7, 2017, with votes from 51 Republicans and 3 Democrats. He was sworn into office as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on April 10. ==Nomination of Brett Kavanaugh==

On June 27, 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the Supreme Court effective July 31, giving Trump an opportunity to send a second Supreme Court nominee to the Senate for confirmation. United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judge Brett Kavanaugh was officially nominated on July 9, selected from among a list of 25 potential nominees considered by the Trump administration. Kavanaugh's nomination was officially sent to the Senate on July 10, 2018, and confirmation hearings began on September 4. The hearings took longer than initially expected over objections to the withholding of documents pertinent to Kavanaugh's time in the Bush administration as a lawyer and due to the presence of protestors. On September 16, 2018, Christine Blasey Ford alleged that a then-17 year old Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982, in what she described as an attempted rape. The accusation delayed the scheduled September 20 vote. After Ford's accusation, Kavanaugh indicated he would not withdraw. Ford's allegations were followed by an accusation of sexual assault by Yale classmate Deborah Ramirez, and a letter from Julie Swetnick accusing Kavanaugh of gang rape in high school. Ford and Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a hearing on September 27, and were questioned by Arizona sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell and members of the Senate. The Judiciary Committee voted to approve Kavanaugh on September 28 after Jeff Flake, considered to be a swing vote, declared his intent to vote in favor of the nomination with the provision that there would be a new FBI investigation into the allegations by Ford. The investigation concluded on October 4. Two days later, Kavanaugh was confirmed by the whole Senate by a 50–48 vote, and sworn in that same day. ==Nomination of Amy Coney Barrett==

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020. The following day, Trump stated that any successor of Ginsburg would "most likely" be a woman. On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Trump would nominate United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Ginsburg as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On October 26, 2020, Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52–48. She was sworn in the next day. ==Possible nominees under the first Trump administration==

Below is a list of individuals which President Trump identified as his potential nominees for Supreme Court appointments. Most of them were revealed in two lists released by the Trump campaign in 2016. Others were added in a revised list released by the White House on November 17, 2017 and a fourth list released on September 9, 2020. Following the nomination of Amul Thapar to the Sixth Circuit, it was reported that Trump might try to season some of the candidates on his list with federal appellate court experience prior to potential nomination to the Supreme Court. Trump added five further candidates to the list on November 17, 2017. United States courts of appeals • Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit • Gregory G. Katsas‡ (born 1964) (nominated and confirmed) • Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit • Thomas Hardiman* (born 1965) • Peter J. Phipps‡ (born 1973) • Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit • Raymond Kethledge* (born 1966) • Amul Thapar** (born 1969) • Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit • Amy Coney Barrett† (born 1972) (nominated and confirmed) • Diane Sykes* (born 1957) • Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit • Bridget S. Bade‡ (born 1965) • Neil Gorsuch** (born 1967) • Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit • Britt Grant† (born 1978) • Barbara Lagoa‡ (born 1967) • Bill Pryor* (born 1962) State supreme courts • Keith R. Blackwell** (born 1975) – associate justice, Supreme Court of Georgia • Charles Canady** (born 1954) – chief justice, Supreme Court of Florida • Thomas Rex Lee* (born 1964) – associate justice, Utah Supreme Court • Edward Mansfield** (born 1957) – associate justice, Iowa Supreme Court • Carlos G. Muñiz‡ (born 1969) – associate justice, Supreme Court of Florida • Robert P. Young Jr.** (born 1951) – former chief justice, Michigan Supreme Court Executive branch • Paul Clement‡ (born 1966) – former solicitor general of the United States • Steven Engel‡ (born 1974) – United States assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel • Noel Francisco‡ (born 1969) – former solicitor general of the United States • Christopher Landau‡ (born 1963) – United States ambassador to Mexico • Kate Comerford Todd‡ (born 1975) – Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President United States senators • Tom Cotton‡ (born 1977) – Senator from Arkansas • Ted Cruz‡ (born 1970) – Senator from Texas • Josh Hawley‡ (born 1979) – Senator from Missouri • Mike Lee** (born 1971) – Senator from Utah State executive branches • Daniel Cameron‡ (born 1985) – former Attorney General of Kentucky ==Court composition under Trump's second term==

In the intervening years between Trump's two presidencies, Justice Stephen Breyer retired, and was succeeded by Biden nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Upon the reelection of Trump, speculation of additional vacancies emerged, as three of the Court's justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Sonia Sotomayor—were all in their seventies. In contrast to his first presidency, which created an ideological shift of the court, many analysts viewed a potential vacancy as a way to cement the court's conservative leanings. ==Possible nominees under the second Trump administration==

Unlike the 2016 campaign, Trump did not release a list of potential Supreme Court nominees during the 2024 campaign. • Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit • Michael H. Park (born 1976, appointed by Trump) • Kyle Duncan (born 1972, appointed by Trump) • Amul Thapar (born 1969, elevated by Trump) • Patrick J. Bumatay (born 1978, appointed by Trump) • Kathryn Kimball Mizelle (born 1987) – Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (appointed by Trump) State supreme courts • Mark D. Martin (born 1963) - Former chief justice, North Carolina Supreme Court Executive branch • Noel Francisco (born 1969) - 47th solicitor general United States governors • Ron DeSantis (born 1978) – Governor of Florida State executive branches • Jonathan F. Mitchell (born 1976) – 5th Texas solicitor general Other backgrounds • Morse Tan (born 1974) – Dean, Liberty University School of Law • Kristen Waggoner (born 1972) – President, CEO, and General Counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom ==See also==