President Trump vowed to release a new list of possible nominees for the Supreme Court after a slate of rulings he decried as being “shotgun blasts into the face” of conservatives.
“I will be releasing a new list of Conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees, which may include some, or many of those already on the list, by September 1, 2020,” he tweeted Thursday.
Trump said he would only select nominees from the list if reelected and argued that adding another conservative justice to the court “is more important than ever before.”
…Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religous Liberty, etc.) – VOTE 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
The president released a list of potential nominees during the 2016 election to woo Republican voters who may have been worried that he would not nominate a conservative judge, given that he has switched his party affiliation several times.
During his first term, Trump has had two of his nominations confirmed to the high court, including Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was on Trump’s 2016 list and joined liberal justices in ruling this week to protect gay and transgender people from employment discrimination. Chief Justice John Roberts also voted with the liberal bloc in the 6-3 ruling.
Trump’s tweet followed a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court that blocked him from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which prevents thousands of immigrant children who were brought to the United States illegally from being deported. Roberts again voted with his liberal colleagues.
