During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump pledged to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the late-Justice Antonin Scalia with a proven conservative who will interpret the Constitution as it was originally written, not as a living document.
In fact, as a gesture to conservative voters, then-candidate Trump released a list of 21 candidates he would consider to fill Scalia’s seat, a move that helped to convince many uneasy conservatives to support Trump in November.
After President Trump took office, he formally nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, and while Democrats tried to obstruct and take down his nomination, Gorsuch was confirmed and President Trump kept his campaign promise to get another conservative.
Well, one top Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, believes that another Supreme Court vacancy may emerge within the next several months, creating yet another Senate showdown between President Trump and the left – and another opportunity to confirm one of the great choices Trump laid out.
.@ChuckGrassley on Supreme Court: “I would expect a resignation this summer.” pic.twitter.com/b5qIYLVhQO
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 20, 2017
From The Daily Mail:
Grassley said Tuesday during a Q&A session in the town of Muscatine that he expects Trump to continue to choose justices from a list of potential nominees he released before the November election.
And that could signal that the Supreme Court spinner will land on someone other than a white male the next time around.
‘I don’t know about racial and ethnic divisions, but there’s some very good females on there that would make good Supreme Court Justices as well,’ Grassley said.
In order to overcome a Democrat filibuster of Gorsuch, Republicans used the “Harry Reid Nuclear Option,” lowering the number of votes for a Supreme Court nomination from 60 to just 51.
This comes into play especially if a more moderate justice, such as Anthony Kennedy, or the court’s far-left Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, retires, and Trump would only need 51 votes to get their replacement confirmed. If President Trump had the opportunity to appoint a second Supreme Court justice within one year, he could potentially further solidify the court’s conservative majority for years to come.
Do you think it is likely that a second Supreme Court vacancy will emerge this year? Share your thoughts below!