Supreme Court’s Roberts is the new man at the ‘center’

He added that two women are among his top candidates for the job.

Senator Ted Cruz has voiced support for Lee for the U.S. Supreme Court, telling Fox News, “I think the single best choice President Trump could make is Sen. He’s a great guy”, Trump said.

Kennedy’s replacement could cast a deciding vote on limiting or ending the right to abortion. This Supreme Court Justice opening has everybody on edge, from both sides of the aisle, and it could be interesting to see how the confirmation process proceeds.

Mr Trump said he planned to interview one or two of the candidates over the weekend while staying at his golf club in Bedminster. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he asked Kennedy whether he had any possible candidates in mind. He said he thinks those issues are “inappropriate to discuss”.

The president has met privately with a handful of lawmakers who could decide the fate of his nomination.

“It is a group of very highly talented, very brilliant, mostly conservative judges”, Trump added.

“The Supreme Court could do quite a lot of damage to the right recognized in Roe without ever formally overruling it, simply by upholding state laws that make it harder and harder for women to obtain abortions without banning them”, Vladeck said.

Barrett and Thapar were both appointed by Trump to their current federal appeals court posts. Murkowski is known for her support for abortion rights and gay marriage – positions usually out of step with Republican orthodoxy and what many conservatives want to see out of Trump’s court pick. “As I said, I’m looking specifically at two women”. Thomas Lee is a judge on the Utah Supreme Court.

“He’s an outstanding talent”. Reproductive rights experts say numerous recent state laws are so extreme that they could set up a showdown over Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

Since Trump’s election, Democrats have been embroiled in an internal debate about the sanctity of institutional norms and rules that have been eroded by Trump and the Republican party. “Our country will always be safe, secure, and protected on my watch”, said Trump in a statement issued by the White House on Tuesday.

A confirmation vote for Garland was never held, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell determined it was too close to the presidential election.

The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative political campaign organization, has launched a seven-figure ad buy aimed at vulnerable Democrats, said chief counsel and policy director Carrie Severino. “What we’re seeing here is Gorsuch 2.0”. That infuriated Democrats, who say that McConnell’s push to confirm Trump’s nominee now before the November midterms reeks of hypocrisy.

“A decision overturning Roe is way more likely” after Kennedy’s retirement, Ziegler said. The question “loomed large” among the other Supreme Court justices in a number of important decisions, his former law clerk Joshua Matz told ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast on Thursday.