Some want Trump to trim his list of potential Supreme Court candidates by half or more — ditching those with limited records from which to judge the consistency of their judicial philosophy and blocking fresh appointees to the federal court system from being added. Among the names they said Trump should keep are Judges Amul Thapar and Raymond Kethledge on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, both of whom have been on the federal bench for more than a decade, and Judge Amy Coney Barrett on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a Catholic mother of seven who is widely revered among social conservatives despite her limited judicial record.
Two Republicans close to the White House Counsel’s Office, which continually vets potential judicial nominees, said Barrett should remain on the president’s list, but that Trump should resist calls to add more fresh faces from his record-setting list of appointees.
“There are few new judges who are very good and could be added to the list, but the main thing that needs to happen is to cut the list way down by removing anyone who has not been proven to be a rock-ribbed conservative,” said a third Republican close to the White House. “The whole purpose of the list is to give hardline conservatives a guarantee that we will not be betrayed again.”
