TRUMP TO PICK TOP JUDGE ON JULY 9

Five prospects in the running, including 2 women, says president

BEDMINSTER,

PRESIDENT Donald Trump said on Friday he will announce his nominee to be the next United States Supreme Court justice on July 9, a decision with momentous implications for the country’s future.

“I’ve got it narrowed to about five” candidates, including two women, Trump told reporters travelling with him on Air Force One as he headed to New Jersey. “I like them all,” Trump said. A slot on the nine-member bench is opening after Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement this week.

For years, the conservative has served as the tie-breaking vote on some of the country’s biggest cases, siding with liberals on issues such as abortion, gay rights and granting constitutional rights to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay.

In nominating his successor, Trump has the opportunity to shift the high court decisively to the right for decades to come, and a monumental battle over the process is already brewing.

And Kennedy was not the eldest member of the court — liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 85, and has indicated she has no intention of retiring.

Experts and lawmakers alike have said the fate of American women’s rights might be at stake, with a conservative new justice potentially providing enough support to overturn the landmark 1973 court ruling upholding abortion rights.

But Trump said he would not directly probe the candidates about their position on the Roe v. Wade decision.

Three women currently serve on the bench: Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. All were appointed by Democratic presidents. A fourth woman on the court would be a US record.

Trump has said he will pick Kennedy’s successor from a list of 25 people, many of whom are young judges in their 40s or 50s.

Six women are on the list, including Seventh Circuit judge Amy Barrett, 46, and 10th Circuit judge Allison Eid, 53. Both were being closely vetted, Politico said, citing a person familiar with White House thinking on the nomination.

Choosing a female justice might help soothe concerns among the two most moderate Republicans in the senate, both of whom are women.

One possible nominee who is not a judge is Senator Mike Lee, a 47-year-old conservative Republican who earlier worked in private legal practice and as an assistant US attorney.

Trump said one or two court prospects would likely come to his club here in New Jersey, possibly over the weekend “just for an interview”.