Donald Trump’s team is reportedly eyeing several extremely conservative judges who could serve as potential Supreme Court picks, should the president get the chance to replace one of the aging justices.
Among the names being circulated are Andrew Oldham and James Ho, two conservative judges on the right-wing Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, Amal Thapar, a judge on the Sixth Circuit Appeals Court and a previous contender for the Supreme Court, and Neomi Rao, a judge on the D.C. Circuit Appeals Court.
While there are no vacancies on the Supreme Court currently, Justices Clarence Thomas, 77, and Samuel Alito, 75, could potentially retire in the coming years, having both served on the court for several decades.
“We are looking for people in the mold of Alito, Clarence Thomas and the late [Antonin Scalia],” a White House official familiar with the situation told Time magazine.
The official said it was “premature” to say the White House was preparing for a vacancy. No justices on the court have signaled they are preparing to retire soon.
But whenever the opportunity arrives, the White House will have a panel of judges for the president to choose from – an attempt to make the process smoother than Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious Senate confirmation hearing.
It would also likely make for a quick advancement to the Senate, allowing Trump to add yet another conservative ally to the court regardless of timing. That is similar to how he nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020 after former justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in the final months of his presidency.
Liberals were forced to watch Republicans prevent Barack Obama from filling a vacant seat in 2016 and then, in 2020, Bader Ginsburg’s death just two months before a presidential election resulted in yet another rightward shift for the court.
Oldham, a judge on the conservative Fifth Circuit Appellate Court, previously clerked for Alito and served as general counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. He has a history of issuing controversial opinions that have been contested and reversed at the Supreme Court.
In one of the more well-known cases, Oldham wrote the appellate court opinion that upheld a controversial Texas law that would have allowed the state to regulate censorship on social media platforms. Ultimately, the Supreme Court reversed it.
He also authored a concurring opinion in the Biden administration ghost gun case, striking down the administration’s attempts to regulate them and claiming it violated “gunsmithing” – the craft of building and modifying firearms. The Supreme Court reversed that decision, too.
Oldham is likely to accelerate the president’s agenda, having already used fringe legal theories to issue opinions that align with Trump’s desires.
Also on the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court is Ho, who, in addition to having previously clerked for Thomas, also has a history of issuing controversial opinions.
Many of Ho’s opinions have upheld theories that allow for restricting immigration in the U.S. – one of the president’s main objectives.
He recently criticized lower court judges for not allowing the president to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan immigrants who have been accused of being gang members.
Thapar, who serves as a judge on the Sixth Circuit Appellate Court, has shown conservative viewpoints in his opinions, such as saying Roe v. Wade was “wrong.”
He also advocated for law schools to teach more “originalism” – or interpreting the Constitution as it was written, often associated with conservative legal theories – and told donors to withhold donations to schools unless they show a “commitment to intellectual diversity.”
Another potential option is Rao, a judge on the D.C. Appeals Court.
Rao has received attention for previously authoring pieces that critiqued a woman who accused someone of sexual assault and affirmative action.
Notably, Rao ruled in favor of the Trump administration after it barred an Associated Press journalist from accessing the White House and other press coverage areas, thereby undoing a lower court ruling.
Thapar was reportedly on Trump’s shortlist of Supreme Court picks in 2018 when former justice Anthony Kennedy retired. However, Trump ultimately went with Kavanaugh.
The White House official told Time magazine that Trump will make the final decisions on who to put before the Senate when the time comes to nominate a replacement.
