Possible Future SCOTUS Nominees over the Next Four Years(Exclude Garland)

[politicallefty]

Sandoval is the kind of Republican that would be nominated only if there was a Republican President facing a Democratic Senate. Other than the nomination of Justice Kennedy, you have to go back to the Nixon Administration to find such a setup.

If a Democratic President had the Senate and was feeling particularly feisty, I'd like to see Goodwin Liu nominated and confirmed.

[politicallefty]

Sandoval is the kind of Republican that would be nominated only if there was a Republican President facing a Democratic Senate. Other than the nomination of Justice Kennedy, you have to go back to the Nixon Administration to find such a setup.

Stevens, Souter, Thomas.

Duh. Wow, my mind was in a different place. Generally though, a President without the Senate has tended to moderate the nominees with only one exception. The Democratic Senate should have defeated the nomination of Clarence Thomas with immediate haste. Kennedy was understandable. Thomas was not. A Democratic President attempting to fill a SCOTUS seat with a Republican Senate hasn't happened in the modern age prior to this year.

[politicallefty]

I think the biggest concern is the amount of influence Pence might have over this pick. I don't Trump himself would appoint a socon warrior, but Pence wants that more than anything.

Ken Mehlman would be a sigh of relief to many on the left on the marriage issue, but do you really think a Republican President with a Republican Senate is going to nominate the first gay Supreme Court Justice?

At this point, I'd rather have Scalia back than whatever right-wing ideologue is going to come as his replacement. At least Justice Scalia had certain principles that would not violate, regardless of ideology. And while I don't appreciate his homophobia or staunch pro-death penalty stance, I commend some of his free speech rulings and those protecting the rights of criminal defendants. Unfortunately, I don't expect his replacement to share many of those latter views. I'm expecting something close to Alito, a right-wing ideologue whose outstanding positions are some of the worst.

[politicallefty]

Yes. Pence scares me more than Trump. There was one time Scalia voted in favor of gay rights in Hollingsworth v. Perry, Clarence Thomas never did. Will Ginsburg, Breyer, or Kennedy be replaced by some extreme reactionary like Roy Moore, Brett Kavanaugh, or Miguel Estrada? I prefer someone like Brian Sandoval.

Hollingsworth wasn't really about marriage equality so much as it was about judicial standing. Justices Kennedy and Sotomayor were in the dissent on that case, while in the majority in Obergefell.

I don't expect any voluntary retirements, unless absolutely necessary. If one does arise, it wouldn't be someone like Roy Moore. I'm quite certain he would be rejected by even a Republican Senate. If the picks are screened through Pence, Sandoval wouldn't get through. He's the kind of nominee for a Republican President with a Democratic Senate or extremely narrow Republican Majority. There are probably enough institutionalists remaining on the Republican side to prevent the nuclear option on SCOTUS nominations. However, that's not to say a very charming staunch conservative couldn't get through the next Senate (think John Roberts with a very thin paper trail).