A top Trump judicial adviser on Sunday said none of the reportedly top individuals on the administration’s shortlist of candidates to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy have a clear position on whether to overturn a key abortion ruling.
Democrats are spurring concerns that President Trump will appoint a justice to the nation’s top court that will seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide. Trump is planning to announce his candidate on July 9 and Senate Republican leaders are hoping to confirm the pick before the first week in October.
The White House is tapping into the same shortlist updated in November for its nomination to fill Kennedy’s seat and several of the candidates have expressed strong pro-life views. But Leonard Leo, the vice president of the Federalist Society who has again taken a leave of absence to be a Trump judicial adviser, said none “have a clear position on Roe v. Wade.”
“Prospective nominees like Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Barrett, and Raymond Kethledge, and Tom Hardiman are people who have not specifically said they oppose Roe v. Wade, and their writings and their work show that they are very fair,” he told Fox News. “They look at arguments from both sides all the time and they analyze them very carefully, and when they take a position, they then say these are what the other people have said about this and here’s why I don’t agree with them.”
Leo said none of the candidates he mentioned are necessarily front-runners, but strongly defended their credentials. Pressed on whether circuit court judge Kavanaugh’s view that presidents are exempt from outside investigations disqualifies him, Leo said his past comments show Kavanaugh respects “the limits on government power in the Constitution, which includes the separation of powers.”
Trump is facing a lawsuit alleging that his non-profit charity violated campaign finance laws and inappropriately coordinated with his presidential campaign, among other things. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin also remains ongoing.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to show that Leo has taken a temporary leave of absence from the Federalist Society.
