Let’s have a clean thread to discuss this. Announcement should be made today.
I’m hopeful. As much as I dislike Trump, I do prefer a Roberts or Scalia type person on the Supreme Court, so as long is Trump isn’t going to nominate a partisan hack, I’m going to take a rare opportunity to like something he does. I see no reason to expect any GOP opposition to Trump’s pick, even if some Senators have been critical of some of his recent moves.
Based entirely on their Wikipedia pages, it looks like what you would expect in terms of a Conservative selection. Basically a choice between God (Gorsuch) vs Guns (Hardiman).
While I loathe both choices, I do so only about as much as I loathed Scalia. At least I’m relieved that it looks like Trump actually listened to someone who knows something about the judiciary in making these picks, rather than nominating someone off the top of his head like Judge Judy, or some random judge who ruled in his favor at one point.
There’s a show called “Hot Bench” where there are three judges and they come up with a joint ruling. Expand it to 9 and you got yourself Supreme Court TV!
To me, Gorsuch is a conventional choice with fairly impeccable credentials. I would see him being easily confirmed, with the usual partisan objections from the Democratic side. I don’t see him as having deeply objectionable past opinions that would give anyone something to hang their hat on.
Also mentioned in some circles, William Pryor of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and former Alabama AG. That one must be tempting, because he declared Roe v Wade to be “the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law”. So maybe a three-way choice between God (Gorsuch), Guns (Hardiman), and Fetuses (Pryor). Or maybe Trump can pull a surprise and find a Bible-thumping gun nut and pro-fetus misogynist all in one crackpot judge.
ETA:
From what little I’ve read, Gorsuch is probably the least offensive of the two or three possibilities.
I’m hopeful that the Democrats filibuster this appointment and do whatever they can to prevent Donald from ever making a SCOTUS appointment. I don’t care who he nominates to fill the vacancy; that seat was stolen from the Democrats and should have been filled by Obama.