Multiple allies close to President Donald Trump are preparing short lists of potential Supreme Court nominees should any of the nine justices retire or pass away. This time, the Trump administration is hoping to ensure none of the self-inflicted errors or challenges it faced during his first term arise again.
Justice Clarence Thomas, widely regarded as the most far-right member of the Court, is 77. Justice Samuel Alito, another staunch conservative, is 75. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor is 71. And Chief Justice John Roberts—who has arguably expanded presidential power more than any other figure in modern judicial history—is 70, and facing mounting scrutiny.
While none are approaching the age of early 20th-century Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who retired at 90, it’s likely that at least one may opt to hang up his or her robe within the next three and a half years.
According to a TIME magazine exclusive, several conservative and right-wing allies have the ear of the Trump administration, even if it is not actively preparing for a vacancy.
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The current guidelines for the next Trump Supreme Court nominee appear to favor a jurist in the mold of Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, or the late Justice Antonin Scalia. But according to Benjamin Wittes, the editor of Lawfare, loyalty may rule the day.
“I assume the competition here would be to have shown greatest loyalty to Trump,” Wittes told TIME. “I think one would worry that this person would be guided by loyalty rather than guided by something like principle.”
TIME says one of the leading names on the short lists is Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump to replace now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in 2019. Rao clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, and if nominated and confirmed would become the first Asian American justice on the Court. At 52, she would be among the youngest. (Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett, the youngest on the Court, is 53. Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson is 54.)
Justice Thomas secretly lobbied to get Rao confirmed after she was nominated, The Washington Post reported in 2019.
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A former Professor of Law, Rao served in the first Trump administration as well as in the Bush 43 administration.
During her confirmation hearing, Rao refused to say if she believed same-sex relationships are a sin.
As an appeals court judge, Rao has written, in a dissenting opinion, that “allegations of illegal conduct against the president cannot be investigated by Congress except through impeachment.”
Another “front runner,” TIME reported, is Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Judge Andrew Oldham, another Trump appointee. Oldham clerked for Justice Alito, served in the Bush 43 administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, and served as general counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Mentioned as having been previously suggested for the short lists is Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who infamously delayed and ultimately dismissed Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of President Trump in the Espionage Act and classified materials case.
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