Trump set to name Supreme Court pick
Hours ahead of announcing his second pick for the Supreme Court, US President Donald Trump promised to select someone “with impeccable credentials, great intellect, unbiased judgement, and deep reverence for the laws and Constitution”.
He gave away no names in that statement issued by the White House. But he is expected to pick one of the four candidates that have dominated the headlines Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman, all judges from federal courts of appeal.
Amul Thapar, an Indian American judge, was among those interviewed by Trump in recent days but he appears to have lost out to the others.
Trump is scheduled to announce his pick on Monday night. This will be the second judge nominated by Trump to the nine-member bench. His first was Neil Gorsuch, in 2017.
In choosing the nominee, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, Trump said in the statement on Monday that his “greatest responsibility is to select a Justice who will faithfully interpret the Constitution as written”.
He added: “Judges are not supposed to rewrite the law, reinvent the Constitution, or substitute their own opinions for the will of the people expressed through their laws. We reject judicial activism and policy-making from the bench.”
The position fell vacant after Justice Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Republican president Ronald Reagan but a judge who had come to be known as the swing vote, announced his decision to retire in July. Trump spoke to reporters Sunday afternoon before returning to Washington from a weekend at his private golf club in New Jersey, where he deliberated his decision amid furious lobbying and frenzied speculation. Relishing the suspense, Trump insisted he still hadn’t locked down his decision.