What would the U.S. Supreme Court look like after President Donald Trump?
The presumptive Republican nominee released the names of 11 judges he would consider appointing to the high court on Wednesday, an unprecedented move in American presidential politics aimed at quelling conservative fears about his potential imprint on the federal judiciary.
Among the names are six federal appeals judges: Thomas Hardiman of the Third Circuit, Raymond Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit, Diane Sykes of the Seventh Circuit, Steven Colloton and Raymond Gruender of the Eighth Circuit, and William Pryor of the Eleventh Circuit.
Trump also named five state supreme court judges: Allison Eid of Colorado, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, David Stras of Minnesota, and Don Willett of Texas. Nominating a state judge would break with a recent bipartisan preference for the federal bench. All of the current Supreme Court justices except Elena Kagan served on a federal appeals court before joining the Court.
Collectively, the list underscores some of the more homogenous aspects of the current Court. None of Trump’s nominees hail from the Northeast; five of the current justices grew up in either New York or New Jersey. None of them obtained their law degrees from Ivy League schools; all of the current justices received theirs from Harvard or Yale. Thomas Lee, whose brother Mike represents Utah in the U.S. Senate, would also be the first Mormon justice.