Some time this week, Trump will announce his nominee
Right now there are three apparent frontrunners on the shortlist, and its not a given who it will be
So I think we should discuss the three until its final;
Amy Coney Barrett, 48, is the most popular and visible of the candidates. She's a former Scalia aide, strident originalist and member of the federalist society who was in contention with Kavanaugh during the last pick. She's 48 and has been a professor of law with a distinguished career, but only served as a judge on the appeals courts since 2017, making her the most inexperienced and thus also a small potential risk of ideological uncertainty, because even if she's been a reliable conservative in academia her judicial career is too short to be considered immutable at this point and a point of attack for critics and doubters. As a faithful roman catholic associated with catholic groups, her nomination process poses the potential landmine if democrats attack her faith during an election cycle and alienate catholic voters, and the democrats are dumb enough to fall for it
Quote
“Were I confirmed as a judge, I would decide cases according to the rule of law beginning to end. In the rare circumstance that might ever arise, I can’t imagine one sitting here now, where I felt some contentious objection to the law, I would recuse. I would never impose my own personal convictions upon the law."
“I totally reject and have rejected throughout my entire career the proposition that the end justifies the means or that a judge should decide cases based on a desire to reach a certain outcome”
Barbara Lagoa, 53, is a Cuban American and daughter of Cuban exiles, a judge who has served for 14 years mostly at the state appeals level in Florida, then the Florida supreme court, then the 11th district appointed by Trump just a year ago. She's a much 'safer' candidate in that she already passed the senate with an overwhelming bipartisan vote just last year after lengthy vetting, and as a latino the Democrats would be suicidal to try to scuttle her nomination process during the election and lose Florida because of it. She was at one point a lawyer representing Elian Gonzalez. She just ruled in favor of the Republicans on the Amendment 4 appeal and wrote the opinion calling the felon re-enfranchisement scheme constitutional, but that was a ruling that couldn't have gone any other way so it doesn't say much. She's also a federalist society member and has ruled pretty consistently as a conservative, but doesn't have the strong religious views of Barrett.
Quote
“I am particularly mindful of the fact that, under our constitutional system, it is for the Legislature and not the courts to make the law. It is the role of judges to apply, not to alter, the work of the people’s representatives. And it is the role of judges to interpret our Constitution and statutes as they are written. In the country my parents fled, the whim of a single individual could mean the difference between food or hunger, liberty or prison, life or death. In our great country and our great state, we are governed by the rule of law, the consistent and equal application of the law to all litigations regardless of a judge’s personal preferences. Unlike the country my parents fled, we are a nation of laws, not of men.”
Allison Jones Rushing, 38, is far younger and has only served as a judge on the 4th circuit for 1 year, before that an attorney and clerk for Gorsuch and Thomas. She's been far more outspoken about conservative social issues, citing moral and practical reasons to ban same-sex marriage and a member of both the Federalist Society and Alliance Defending Freedom, making her the target of hate from LGBT activists. Her name was mentioned but she's such a remote possibility compared to Lagoa or Barrett that I don't think she's worth mentioning that much, she might have a better shot at the SCOTUS in 20 years from now, so not even gonna bother copy/pasting a quote.
This post was edited by Goomshill on Sep 20 2020 12:36am