During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump pledged his Supreme Court nominees would be "originalists" in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia.
The shortlist is widely rumored to include U.S. Appeals Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of IN; U.S. Appeals Court Judge Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania; U.S. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, who formerly clerked for Kennedy; U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge of MI; and U.S. Appeals Court Judge Amul Thapar of Kentucky, according to the Washington Post.
Schumer told Trump that such a choice would be "cataclysmic" and create more division than the country has seen in years, according to a person familiar with the conversation who said Trump called Schumer on Tuesday. A Republican appointee, he has held the key vote on such high-profile issues as abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, guns, campaign finance and voting rights.
Trump has said that he plans to announce his Supreme Court pick on Monday and the President has spent the past week interviewing potential candidates.
And while it appears that Senator Lee is now also a part of the short list, he has no judicial experience, while all other assumed contenders do. She attended St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School in Metairie and St. Mary's Dominican High in New Orleans.
Some conservatives have pointed to Kethledge as a potential justice in the mold of Neil Gorsuch, Trump's first Supreme Court nominee previous year.
Trump's comments on judicial activism come as Democrats and other critics have loudly warned that the president's replacement for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy could be a nominee who ends up being hostile to abortion rights and could possibly rule in favor of overturning the decades-old Roe V. Wade case. He's the only lawmaker on Mr. Trump's list. Earlier in the week, he spoke with seven people on the list.
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George W. Bush nominated Kavanaugh to the federal bench in 2003.
He cited former justices William Brennan, John Paul Stevens and Harry Blackmun, who authored the Roe v. Wade decision that established a woman's right to abortion.
"Her clarity and intellectual strength in the Senate hearings for her current judgeship showed an intellect and a depth of thought that would be powerful on the Supreme Court", Gingrich wrote.
The remarks by liberal leaders at Thursday's news conference are aimed at raising pressure on senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of ME and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, who've backed abortion rights. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told Coney Barrett a year ago during her confirmation hearing in an exchange about the judge's Catholic faith - a comment that was roundly criticized by religious leaders.
Kethledge's sudden ascent in the process is widely seen in the West Wing as a effect of what conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh has called the "whisper campaign" against Kavanaugh, with the president newly intrigued by the University of Michigan Law School graduate. Mike Lee, R-Utah - and openly lobbying against another one of Trump's top contenders. She was confirmed with 55 bi-partisan votes, one more vote than Justice Gorsuch received.
On CNN's "State of the Union", Maine's senior senator said she would support nominees who consider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned laws criminalizing or restricting access to abortion, a settled matter.
