President Trump’s third Supreme Court nomination, Amy Coney Barrett, is seen as likely to cement a 6-3 conservative majority. But there’s a lesser-known aspect of Trump’s picks — each represents Generation X.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, 53, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 55, and Barrett, 48, a federal appeals court judge in Indiana, are the first batch of Generation Xers to be nominated to the Supreme Court. It is not surprising Trump chose individuals from this age group to fill Supreme Court seats, as one source told the Washington Examiner the president wants his judges to be on the court for a generation or two.
Additionally, although Generation X, born between 1965 and 1981, is smaller compared to baby boomers before them or the millennials who came after, Gen Xers are finally beginning to take on the levers of power.
According to a report by CNBC, Gen X now accounts for just over half of all leadership positions worldwide. Generation Xers make up nearly 50% of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development country leaders.
On Capitol Hill, there are 19 members of Generation X in the Senate, with 12 Republicans, seven Democrats, and dozens more in the lower chamber, as new candidates run for office each election cycle and are sworn into office and others leave.
“I think it’s great to get new ideas. I think it’s good to get people who are going to be on there for a period of time. I appointed 407 judges in Florida, about 40% of the judges in Florida when I was there. And I appointed people I thought that wanted to serve and wanted to serve for a long time,” Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott told the Washington Examiner.
“If you only wanted to serve for a few years, that wasn’t very interesting to me,” said Scott, Florida governor from 2011-19. “I want people that are going to be on the courts and really learn how to be a judge and do a good job for a long time.”
The Supreme Court, with just nine seats, has moved at its own pace, but a third of its members, should Barrett be confirmed, will soon represent a generation usually forgotten for the older baby boomers and younger millennials.
“These are judges, and in Judge Barrett’s case, and in Kavanaugh’s and Gorsuch, who will likely serve now for the next, one would think, 25, 30 years. So this is the vanguard of the next generation on the court,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, told the Washington Examiner. “And, obviously, that changeover will continue over time. But I think it is quite significant.”
Hawley noted that Barrett was a clerk for the late Justice Antonin Scalia while also mentioning likely future colleagues, Justice Stephen Breyer and Chief Justice John Roberts.
“She clerked for Justice Scalia, but she’s from a very different generation from Justice Scalia or Justice Breyer or even the chief justice. He’s now in his 60s. So, I’ll be interested to hear sort of how her approach to the law differs, partly by virtue of reflective of the fact of being younger and having grown up in a somewhat different legal environment.”
