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6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2018 Trump closes in on Supreme Court nod Conservatives eager to shape highest court By CATHERINE LUCEY, KEN THOMAS and LISA MASCARO Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is closing in on his next Supreme Court nominee, with three federal judges leading the competition to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump’s top contend- ers for the vacancy at this time are federal appeals judges Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Ray- mond Kethledge, said a per- son familiar with Trump’s thinking who was not autho- rized to speak publicly. Working closely with a White House team and con- sulting with lawmakers and outside advisers, Trump has spent the week deliberat- ing on the choice. He con- ducted interviews on Mon- day and Tuesday. He has not yet publicly indicated that he has narrowed the list and could still consider others in the mix. With customary fanfare, Trump plans to announce his selection Monday night, kicking off a conten- tious nomination process as Republicans seek to shift the court to the right and Democrats strive to block the effort. Vice President Mike Pence has also met with some of the contenders for the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, The Associated Press has learned. The meetings took place in recent days, according to a person familiar with the search process. The person did not specify which can- didates Pence met with and spoke on condition of ano- nymity to describe the pri- vate search process. Trump is choosing his nominee from a list of 25 candidates vetted by con- servative groups. Ear- lier in the week, he spoke with seven people on the list. Other contenders that have received serious inter- est include federal appeals judges Amul Thapar, Thomas Hardiman and Joan Larsen. The president also spoke by phone with Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah on Monday. He’s the only lawmaker on Trump’s list. That call was not character- ized by the White House as an interview and Lee is not viewed as a top prospect, though he has some support on Capitol Hill. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, advocated for Lee in a Fox News op-ed, warn- ing Trump not to repeat “mistakes” of past Repub- lican presidents by picking a Supreme Court nominee who turns out to be insuffi- ciently conservative. Cruz said Lee would be a “sure thing.” He cited for- mer justices William Bren- nan, John Paul Stevens and Harry Blackmun, who authored the Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman’s right to abortion. All three were nominated by Republican presidents. Trump’s choice to replace Kennedy — a swing vote on the nine-member court — has the potential to remake the court for a generation as part of prece- dent-shattering decisions on abortion, health care, gay marriage and other issues. Recognizing the stakes, many Democrats have lined up in opposition to any Trump pick, and Republi- can lawmakers and activists are seeking to influence the president’s decision. Justice Ginsburg bemoans partisan divide in Congress The 85-year-old Ginsburg was just the second female Supreme Court justice and JERUSALEM — U.S. often cites her Jewish heri- Supreme Court Justice Ruth tage as a source for her love Bader Ginsburg said Thurs- of learning and sensitivity to day she hoped the traditional the plight of minorities. “bipartisan spirit” of congres- “RBG” has added to her sional hearings for judges will unlikely status as pop cul- once again prevail in Wash- ture icon, first created by the ington, D.C., rather than the 2015 book, “Notorious RBG: votes of recent years that have The Life and Times of Ruth mostly divided along party Bader Ginsburg.” The docu- mentary traces her legal work lines. Speaking at a Jerusalem advancing rights for women cinema after the screening of leading up to her 1993 eleva- “RBG,” the breakout hit doc- tion to the top court, and her umentary about her life and role as a justice since — and career, Ginsburg said also touches on the she would not address cultural phenome- non that has ensued, past or present per- sonnel changes on including bobblehead the court, in apparent dolls, tattoos, T-shirts reference to Justice and coffee mugs Anthony Kennedy’s bearing her likeness upcoming retirement. that have become Ruth Bader But the liberal icon hipster staples. A Ginsburg did bemoan how par- Hollywood biopic is tisan the process of also slated for release picking a justice has become. later this year. “I was considered by As the court’s senior lib- some a controversial per- eral justice, Ginsburg spoke son because of my affiliation warily about a Donald Trump with the American Civil Lib- presidency before the 2016 erties Union,” she said about election. “I don’t want to think her 1993 confirmation hear- about that possibility, but if it ings. “There wasn’t a single should be, then everything is question asked of me during up for grabs,” she said. the hearings about my ACLU She later also apologized connections. The vote was for calling Trump a “faker.” 96-3. In Jerusalem, she steered “When Justice (Stephen) clear of any such references, Breyer was nominated the focusing instead on how the next year the vote for him was court could bring even ideo- also in the 90s. Since then the logical opposites together. Senate has tended to divide She spoke about her unlikely along party lines and I think friendship with the late Jus- that’s unfortunate,” she con- tice Antonin Scalia, a conser- tinued. “During my confir- vative stalwart. mation hearings, perhaps my “I miss him very much,” biggest supporter was Orrin she said. Hatch, the Republican sena- Ginsburg appeared in her tor from Utah. I hope some- trademark glasses and pony- day we will get back to the tail, a blue-and-white shawl bipartisan spirit prevailing draped over her shoulders. with respect to the confirma- With three retired Israeli tion of judges.” Supreme Court judges in the Ginsburg is in Israel to audience, she spoke about receive a lifetime achieve- how much progress women ment award from the Gene- have made in her lifetime and sis Prize Foundation, a prom- how her own Judaism has inent Jewish organization. inspired her sense of justice. By ARON HELLER Associated Press Who are Trump’s top Supreme Court picks? By ANNE FLAHERTY Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nomination is expected on Monday, with three federal judges lead- ing the pack. Here’s a look at who they are (plus three more who haven’t been completely counted out just yet): AMY CONEY BARRETT Barrett, 46, was a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and a longtime Notre Dame Law School professor who became a federal judge last fall. If nominated and con- firmed, she would become the fourth female justice on the nine-member court and its youngest member (Jus- tice Neil Gorsuch is now the youngest, turning 51 this August.) Barrett is considered Trump’s most divisive choice, both because of her sparse record on the bench and because of her conserva- tive religious views. At a U.S. Senate hearing last year on her nomination to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Democrats peppered Bar- rett on whether her Roman Catholic faith would inter- fere with her work. Demo- crats cited a 1998 paper in which she argued that Cath- olic judges might need to recuse themselves in death penalty cases. Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of Califor- nia told Barrett that dogma and law are two differ- ent things and she was con- cerned “that the dogma lives loudly within you.” Barrett was eventually confirmed after telling senators that her views had since broadened. She said it was never permis- sible for a judge to “follow their personal convictions in the decision of a case, rather than what the law requires.” A White House question- naire last year cited Barrett as once writing abortion is “always immoral” and asked if that was still her view. She didn’t answer the ques- tion directly but said: “If I am confirmed, my views on this or any other question will have no bearing on the discharge of my duties as a judge.” During her 2017 con- firmation hearing, Barrett described each of her seven children, noting that two were adopted from Haiti. BRETT KAVANAUGH Kavanaugh, 53, is a Yale-educated appellate court judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit who clerked for retir- ing Justice Anthony Kennedy and is probably best known for his ties to President George W. Bush. Kavanaugh also was key member of indepen- dent counsel Kenneth Starr’s team that produced the report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment. But he’s attracting the most attention for his view that presidents shouldn’t be bothered with legal inquiries. In a 2009 article in The Min- nesota Law Review, Kava- naugh wrote that presidents are under such extraordi- nary pressure they “should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizen- ship while serving in office.” Congress, he wrote, should pass a law that would temporarily protect the presi- dent from both civil suits and criminal prosecution. Clin- ton, for example, “could have focused on Osama bin Laden without being distracted by the Paula Jones sexual harassment case and its crim- inal investigation offshoots,” Amy Coney Barrett Raymond Kethledge Brett Kavanaugh Kavanaugh wrote. “If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available,” Kavanaugh wrote. That kind of think- ing could prove helpful to Trump, who has been dogged by accusations of sexual harassment, as well as pos- sible obstruction of justice in the Russia probe now being led by special counsel Rob- ert Mueller. But Kavanaugh’s ties to Washington (he was born in D.C.) and the GOP establish- ment could hurt his chances too, as Trump’s populist sup- porters clamor for an outsider and Democrats pan him as a political operative. (When he was confirmed to the fed- eral appeals court in D.C. in 2006, Bush took the unusual step of hosting a Rose Gar- den swearing-in ceremony with 120 guests to celebrate.) His judicial biogra- phy includes his times in two Boston Marathons, his coaching experience for his two daughters’ basketball teams and his regular partici- pation in services at a Catho- lic church in Washington. RAYMOND KETHLEDGE can U.S. Sen. Spencer Abra- ham of Michigan, who became Bush’s energy sec- retary. Kethledge eventu- ally founded a boutique liti- gation firm with two partners in Troy, Michigan. He was nominated to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006 and confirmed in 2008. Kethledge’s judicial opin- ions have occasionally made news. In 2013, he ruled against unions and upheld a Michigan law that bars school districts from collect- ing membership dues from teachers and other employ- ees, leaving unions to collect the dues themselves. In 2014, he ruled against the federal Equal Employ- ment Opportunity Com- mission in a case it brought against a for-profit educa- tion company over its credit checks on potential employ- ees, noting the EEOC per- formed the same checks. And in 2016 he wrote that police didn’t need a warrant to look at records that reveal where a cellphone user has been, a decision the Supreme Court overturned in a 5-4 ruling earlier this year. Kethledge, 51, is a for- mer Kennedy law clerk and appeals court judge who graduated from the Uni- versity of Michigan and its law school. He serves as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati. He co-authored a book with Army veteran Mike Erwin of The Positivity Proj- ect published last year called “Lead Yourself First: Inspir- ing Leadership Through Sol- itude,” in which he describes himself as an introvert. In an interview with the legal news site “Above the Law,” Keth- ledge said “I love to write” and prefers working from his barn office in northern Michigan overlooking Lake Huron without an internet connection. He was at that office when his wife called to tell him she had seen on television that he was on Trump’s short list of nominees to replace Scalia, a job that eventually went to Justice Neil Gorsuch. In the 1990s, Kethledge was counsel to Republi-
