After Neil Gorsuch was confirmed, most of America moved on to Russia, North Korea, the tax plan, and Rodrigo Duterte. But a small universe of Republican legal thinkers moved on, instead, to war-gaming the next Supreme Court vacancy.

It is widely believed that Justice Anthony Kennedy will step down in the near future. (One of the selling points for Gorsuch was that, as a former Kennedy clerk, his elevation would reassure the 80-year-old justice that Trump could be trusted to pick his successor.) If/when that comes to pass, President Trump will be faced with the decision to stick with the list of 21 potential justices he provided during the campaign, or go rogue. And the politics of this decision are complicated by the fact that this will be the first Supreme Court nomination begun without the possibility of a filibuster.