U.S. Supreme Court
Which judges are on GOP presidential candidate’s SCOTUS short list?
Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the Family Leadership Summit on July 14 in Des Moines, Iowa. He is taking a cue from former President Donald Trump by releasing a short list of judges he would consider for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Photo by Charlie Neibergall/The Associated Press.
Republican 2024 presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is taking a cue from former President Donald Trump by releasing a short list of judges he would consider for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The potential picks include names that have appeared on other short lists, including Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, along with U.S. Circuit Judge James C. Ho of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans and U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit at Philadelphia, Axios reports.
The Washington Post and NBC News also have coverage.
Ho called abortion a “moral tragedy” when he wrote a lower court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case in which the Supreme Court overturned in 2022 the right to abortion. He has also said he won’t hire law clerks in the future from Yale Law School because of its cancel culture.
Yet another judge on the short list is U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit at Atlanta, who joined Ho’s boycott.
Another judge on Ramaswamy’s short list is U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke of the 9th Circuit at San Francisco, who ruled that a beauty pageant had a First Amendment right to reject a transgender contestant.
Others on the short list are U.S. Circuit Judge Justin Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and U.S. Circuit Judge John K. Bush of the 6th Circuit at Cincinnati.
Yet another contender isn’t a judge; he’s former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, who left Kirkland & Ellis in a dispute over representation of gun clients.
Clement later complained on a panel for the Federalist Society that BigLaw firms are “becoming increasingly woke.”
