NOMINATIONS/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In a move certain to please conservatives, President Donald Trump on Friday [11-17-17] added five names to his list of candidates for a prospective U.S. Supreme Court vacancy as he presses ahead with a campaign to move the federal judiciary to the right.
Two of them are appellate judges who were nominated by Trump earlier this year and confirmed by the Senate: Amy Coney Barrett and Kevin Newsom. Another, Brett Kavanaugh, sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, long viewed as a stepping-stone to the high court.
The others were Britt Grant, a Georgia Supreme Court justice, and Patrick Wyrick, a Oklahoma Supreme Court justice.
There is no current vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court but three justices are 79 or older.
During his presidential campaign last year, Trump identified 20 conservative candidates for the Supreme Court. Upon taking office, he named Neil Gorsuch to the court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, restoring the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate in April and has established himself as one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices.”
-James Oliphant and Andrew Chung, “Trump adds five conservatives to list of possible Supreme Court picks,” Reuters, Nov. 17, 2017 01:50pm