President Obama has started interviewing candidates to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
The White House has been tight-lipped about whether Obama has started speaking to candidates yet, but National Public Radio reported Wednesday that discussions between the president and potential nominees has begun.
Citing “sources close to the process,” NPR reported that those being interviewed include: Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Judge Sri Srinivasan of the same court; Judge Paul Watford of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco; Judge Jane Kelly of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals based in St. Louis; and U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson who serves in Washington, D.C.
Garland, Srinivasan and Watford are considered the leading contenders. The Senate has confirmed all three by wide margins, and unanimously approved Srinivasan, 97-0, in 2013.
The president plans on nominating a high court candidate even though Senate Republicans have vowed to block anyone that Obama would choose in such a politically fraught election year.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Tuesday predicted that anyone Obama would choose would become a pinata and have their entire careers scrutinized and possibly shredded, ruining their chances of being selected by a future Democratic president.
The White House Tuesday said the comment sounded like something GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump would say.
“Given Sen. Cornyn’s language, it sounds like he might spend a little too much time watching Donald Trump rallies,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. Cornyn, however, stood by his comments, and said anyone Obama would nominate would simply be “used” by the administration.
“I would be surprised if any person who actually aspired to be on the United States Supreme Court … would allow themselves to be used by this administration,” he said. “There’s no guarantee that that same person will be re-nominated.”
Cornyn also argued that Democrats aren’t in a good position to be lecturing to Republicans on handling the nomination process after then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, invoked the “nuclear” option in 2013, allowing lower court judicial nominees to be confirmed by a simple majority vote in the Senate.
