Trump names his Supreme Court pick
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday announced that Brett Kavanaugh will replace Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Supreme Court, ending the hopes of Indian Americans that Amul Thapar would become the first judge from the community to make it to the top court.
Kavanaugh, 53, is currently a judge on the DC circuit court of appeals that has long been considered the second most powerful court in the country and a pool of reserves for justices to the Supreme Court.
Judge Kavanaugh had emerged a frontrunner in a race that had included Amul Thapar, a judge in the sixth circuit court of appeals, who had figured on the President’s starting shortlist of 25 names and had made it to the final rounds.
He was interviewed by the President the same weekend as Kavanaugh. Thapar got 45 minutes with Trump - the same as Kavanaugh and other frontrunners at that stage, the White House had said, sending a wave of excitement through Indian Americans who view Supreme Court justiceship as a significant representation of their growing clout in their adopted country.
The closest they came to achieving this goal was in 2016 when Sri Srinivasan, a colleague of Judge Kavanaugh’s on the DC circuit court of appeal, made it to the last-two face-off before then President Barack Obama for a position on the Supreme Court that had fallen vacant after the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative jurist loved and admired by Republicans.
“Disappointed but not surprised,” said Shekhar Tiwari, chairman of the American Hindu Coalition, an advocacy group. “There will be another time as other positions fall vacant and we will be ready,” he added.
Trump announced his pick in a widely anticipated address to the nation from the White House.