Donald Trump Updates List of Supreme Court Candidates: Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley Included

Supreme Court
J. Scott Applewhite/AP

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his updated list of conservative candidates he would nominate to the Supreme Court if re-elected as president.

“Every one of these individuals will ensure equal justice, equal treatment, and equal rights for citizens of every race, color, religion, and creed,” Trump said in an appearance at the White House.

The list was comprised of 20 names and included political figures such as newly elected Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, as well as Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO).

“Together we will defend our righteous heritage and preserve our magnificent American way of life,” he said.

The president is unlikely to nominate a political senator to the court, but including their names gives his supporters an idea of his commitment to conservative legal minds.

The president repeated that Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was still on the list, widely considered by conservatives to be a top candidate.

Trump warned that if former Vice President Joe Biden was elected, he would empower the radical left to put activist judges on the Court.

“In the recent past many of our most treasured freedoms – including religious liberty, free speech, and right to keep and bear arms – have been saved by a single vote on the United States Supreme Court,” he said.

In 2016, the president released a list of Supreme Court candidates when he was first running for president. He updated the list in November 2017 to included Judge Brett Kavanaugh, whom he ultimately nominated to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The president announced in June that he would update the list of conservative potential Supreme Court justices, citing disappointment with some of the court’s decisions upholding former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty, defunding Sanctuary Cities, and directing the Census to ask about citizenship.

The president’s lists of candidates were wildly popular with conservative legal groups, some of who had reservations about Trump’s judgment to pick Constitutional originalists in the same legal vein as Justice Antonin Scalia.

Here are the additional names that President Trump added to the list via the president’s campaign:

Bridget Bade, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Daniel Cameron, 51st Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
Tom Cotton, U.S. Senator from Arkansas
Paul Clement, partner with Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Ted Cruz, U.S. Senator from Texas
Stuart Kyle Duncan, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Steven Engel, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice
Noel Francisco, former Solicitor General of the United States
Josh Hawley, U.S. Senator from Missouri
James Ho, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Gregory Katsas, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Barbara Lagoa, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Christopher Landau, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the United Mexican States
Carlos Muñiz, Justice on the Supreme Court of Florida
Martha Pacold, Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Peter Phipps, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Sarah Pitlyk, Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri
Allison Jones Rushing, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Kate Todd, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President
Lawrence VanDyke, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Here is the original list, updated in 2017:

Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia

Charles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida

Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia

Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Mike Lee of Utah, United States Senator

Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah

Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa

Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (Ret.)

Don Willett of Texas, Supreme Court of Texas

Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma

 

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