Today is the day Mr. Trump, the duly and Constitutionally elected President of the U.S.A, will pick another Supreme Court justice
(Washington Post) President Trump said he was “close†to choosing a Supreme Court nominee Sunday after a weekend at his New Jersey golf club evaluating four leading candidates and mulling the likely response of key senators and his core supporters to each prospect, according to White House officials and Trump advisers involved in the discussions.
Over rounds of golf with friends, meals with family, and a flurry of phone calls and meetings with aides, Trump remained coy about his final decision, which is expected to be announced Monday evening from among the four federal judges atop his shortlist: Brett M. ÂKavanaugh, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge and Amy ÂConey Barrett.
“I’m very close to making a decision,†Trump told reporters Sunday afternoon. “Have not made it official yet. Have not made it final.†(snip)
Hardiman, a runner-up when Trump chose Neil M. Gorsuch as his high court nominee last year, received a wave of new attention in the weekend discussions, according to two people briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly about it. (snip)
At various times, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Kethledge have been seen as the leading candidates. Trump likes the suspense: With a showman’s sense of timing, he boasted last year that he kept Gorsuch’s selection closely held until the prime-time announcement.
Who will it be (and why did we not see any sneering when Obama had a showman’s sense of timing when releasing his picks?) We’ll find out sometime today. Kavenaugh seems a bit squishy on social issues and illegal immigration. People can always find something to complain about. As long as we do not end up with another Anthony Kennedy or David Souter.
Regardless of who is picked, you can bet there are tons of opinion pieces and editorials ready to go about how Utterly Horrible The Pick Was and How We Are All Doomed. And you can expect abortion, the murder of the unborn by people who had unprotected, irresponsible sex with people they didn’t want to have children with, to be front and center in all of them.
