Trump’s Supreme Court list

Donald Trump has released a list of 11 potential Supreme Court justices he plans to vet to fill the seat of late Justice Antonin Scalia if he’s elected to the White House. The impressive list contains these names:

Steven Colloton (8th Cir.)
Allison Eid (Colorado Sup. Court)
Raymond Gruender (8th Cir.)
Thomas Hardiman (3d. Cir.)
Raymond Kethledge (6th Cir.)
Joan Larsen (Mich. Sup. Court)
Thomas Rex Lee (Utah Sup. Court and brother of Sen. Mike Lee)
William Pryor (11th Cir.)
David Stras (Minnesota Sup. Court)
Diane Sykes (7th Cir.)
Don Willett (Texas Supreme Court)

Trump had previously cited Pryor and Sykes (the ex-wife of Wisconsin talk show host Charlie Sykes, who hammered Trump during the Wisconsin primary) as examples of kind of justices he would choose. Both are outstanding, as are many of the others on his list.

The fact that state court judges make up nearly half of the list also seems like a good sign. It is, at a minimum, a nod to federalism.

The list confirms what I have heard — that Trump’s is talking to the right conservatives when it comes to the Supreme Court. It doesn’t guarantee a conservative nominee, but it does highlight what is probably the best argument, from a conservative perspective, for voting for Trump — his judicial nominations (and not just to the Supreme Court) are virtually sure to be vastly better than Hillary Clinton’s.

UPDATE: Ilya Shapiro provides his quick take here.

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