President Trump will stick to a previously released list of 25 potential Supreme Court nominees as he weighs who to nominate to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on Wednesday.
“It will be somebody from that list. They will come from that list of 25 people,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with his Portuguese counterpart.
Trump said Kennedy, 81, visited him at the White house “about a half hour” before the Portuguese president arrived for bilateral meetings.
“He came to the White House [and] we had a wonderful discussion,” Trump said, adding that he hopes to select a nominee “who is just as outstanding.”
Statement on Justice Anthony Kennedy. #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/8aWJ6fWemA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2018
The White House described Kennedy as “a true man of letters” in a statement Wednesday.
“Justice Kennedy has been a tireless voice for individual rights and the Founders’ enduring vision of limited government. His words have left an indelible mark not only on this generation, but on the fabric of American history,” the statement read.
Kennedy personally alerted the president to his decision in a letter Wednesday morning, calling his tenure on the high court the “greatest honor and privilege” of his life for the past 43 years. The conservative justice was first nominated to the court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
His retirement gives Trump another chance to nominate a second conservative justice, following the Senate’s confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch last summer.
The president said he intends to begin the process of vetting and selecting a nominee “immediately,” as a second Supreme Court nomination could give Republican lawmakers a much-needed boost just before the November midterm elections.
Kennedy emerged as a tie-breaker on several blockbuster rulings in recent years, including the Obergefell v. Hodges case on same-sex marriage in which he authored the majority opinion and sided with his liberal colleagues.
