SOUND THE ALARM, WE GET A NOMINEE NEXT WEEK | And He Might Be a Youngin

January 24, 2017

Talking to reporters in the Oval, PRESIDENT TRUMP said he plans to announce his Supreme Court nominee next week. “We have outstanding candidates and we’ll pick a truly great Supreme Court nominee,” he said.”

Today, PRESIDENT TRUMP plans to meet with Democratic and Republican Senate leaders to discuss his upcoming nomination to the Supreme Court. He will meet with MITCH MCCONNELL, CHUCK SCHUMER, CHUCK GRASSLEY, and DIANNE FEINSTEIN this afternoon. On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed the invitation noting the meeting would be “part of [Trump’s] ongoing consultations with members of the Senate.”

CNN’s Ariane de Vogue analyzes TRUMP’S list of potential nominees for us and hones in on the four folks topping the list: WILLIAM PRYOR, NEIL GORSUCH, DIANE SYKES, and THOMAS HARDIMAN.

Jonathan Karl and Katherine Faulders with ABC News report NEIL GORSUCH has emerged as the top contender for becoming the next Supreme Court nominee. Gorsuch is 49 years old and would be the youngest Supreme Court nominee in about 25 years.

Over the weekend, liberal lawyers huddled in downtown Washington for what they described as a “counter-inauguration” conference to detail a strategy to confront the new administration. C. Ryan Barber and Tony Mauro with The National Law Journal report on the brewing legal backlash to TRUMP and the lawsuit that’s already under way.

In The Economist today, a piece considering predictions for the future of the Supreme Court, and DONALD TRUMP’S nominee to replace JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA. “One project is gazing more deeply at the judicial tea leaves. FantasyJustice is a crowd-sourced prediction market of sorts, offering a menu of potential Trump justices, on which visitors to its website can vote. It’s an offshoot of FantasySCOTUS—fantasy sports but for predicting Supreme Court opinions. (For the most recent full term, its experts boasted an 84% accuracy rate.) Thousands have weighed in, and three favourite contenders for the vacant seat have emerged.”

Allison Frankel with Reuters considers whether Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have a constitutional right to sue PRESIDENT TRUMP for allegedly violating the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses of the United States Constitution. Bad news for CREW on this, Frankel isn’t so sure they’ll get their day in court.

The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider a case about whether married gay city employees must be given spousal benefits, yielding to political pressure to roll back marriage equality measures in Texas. Noah Feldman for Bloomberg writes, “The best explanation for the flip is that the Texas court of elected judges is sensing the mood of the state — and maybe the country. It’s anticipating that a Supreme Court with at least two Trump nominees could reverse Obergefell. And it wants to signal in some way that it’s on the ‘right’ — i.e. wrong — side of constitutional history.”