SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump said he spoke Monday [7-2-18] morning with four candidates to replace Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who is retiring, as the White House raced to meet the president’s deadline to announce a Supreme Court nominee in one week. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said he likely would meet with two or three other candidates before making his decision. The president has said he plans to announce his choice next Monday, kicking off a sprint to get the nominee confirmed by the fall. White House officials declined to say which potential judicial nominees Mr. Trump talked with Monday morning, but the short list of candidates is believed to include six federal appeals court judges: Thomas M. Hardiman, William H. Pryor Jr., Amul R. Thapar, Brett M. Kavanaugh, Joan L. Larsen and Amy Coney Barrett. Mr. Trump said Monday that all of the people he has talked to about the job are ‘outstanding people,’ but he gave no hint about who he might choose.”
-Michael D. Shear, “Trump Interviews Four Supreme Court Candidates, Temporarily Reorganizing White House Staff to Push a Nomination,” The New York Times online, July 2, 2018