Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Shrouded In Secrecy

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President Trump shakes hands with Neil Gorsuch, his first pick for a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court, on Jan. 31, 2017. The president will likely have the opportunity to name a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday.





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Carolyn Kaster/AP



Death Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Trump Says GOP Should Select A New Supreme Court Justice ‘Without Delay’



Politics
Justice Ginsburg’s Death Sets Up Political Battle In The Senate

Barrett signed a public statement against the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control benefit in 2012 and five years later, she wrote a paper in which she criticized John Roberts’ decision to uphold the ACA’s penalty as a tax, reasoning that the chief justice had pushed the law known as Obamacare «beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.

Those writings drew criticism from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer the last time Barrett made Trump’s shortlist.

But after Barrett met with Trump in 2018, one news report suggested Trump had cut short the session, leading some court watchers to believe she had not made a good impression with the president. He ultimately chose Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat made vacant by Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement.

Trump’s advisers view his 200-plus appointments to lifetime seats on the federal bench as his most enduring legacy, and they have been adding to the list of Supreme Court candidates in recent weeks.

One new name on the list is Judge James Ho, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ho, the son of immigrants from Taiwan, typifies the Trump judicial nominee: young, conservative and unafraid to court controversy.