By the end of January, Republicans will control the presidency, House, Senate, majority of State legislatures, majority of governorships – and before you know it, could control the Supreme Court as well.
The first step will be replacing Antonin Scalia, who passed away in February. Others could retire or pass away too, which would allow conservatives to take a majority position on the court. Left-leaning judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83 years old, while her liberal cohort Stephen Breyer is 78. Scalia passed away at 79.
Barack Obama’s pick to replace Scalia was judge Merrick Garland, who has a reputation as a moderate. Senate Republicans have held off on confirming Garland in the event of a Trump presidency, so a more conservative candidate could be confirmed instead.
Thus far, Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist has 21 potential nominees, but who is the most conservative of them all? A new study has been released on which is most like Scalia.
A panel of legal scholars has identified Utah Supreme Court Justice Thomas Lee as the candidate on President-elect Donald Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees most like the late Justice Antonin Scalia. The four-person group produced a paper called “Searching for Justice Scalia: Measuring The ‘Scalia-ness’ of the Next Potential Member of the U.S. Supreme Court,” which measured key characteristics to determine which candidates are most likely to exhibit Scalia’s jurisprudence and style.
“If one is serious about replacing Justice Scalia with a jurist like him, one should care more about how a potential replacement reached a decision, which will illuminate how a judge approaches the law,” the authors write. “This, in turn, will provide a far clearer window into how that judge would behave when elevated to the Supreme Court, and, ironically, the outcomes they would reach.”
The study sought to measure each candidates “Scalia-ness” with a three-pronged criteria: how much the candidate engages with or promotes originalism (Scalia’s preferred legal interpretive theory,) in their opinions; how often they cite Scalia’s non-judicial writings; and how often they write separate opinions.
If you thought Lee’s name sounded familiar it’s because his brother is Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee. He is a graduate of Chicago Law School and clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court before.
H/T The Daily Caller
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