Here’s who might succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Friday at 87 is sure to spark a battle over who will fill her seat.
Here are some of the judges who could be in line to succeed her on the high court, should President Trump choose to nominate someone:
Amy Coney Barrett
A judge on the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, Barrett was on Trump’s shortlist for his second Supreme Court nomination, which ultimately went to Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.
A graduate of Notre Dame University Law School, she clerked for the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and then spent two decades as a law professor at Notre Dame.
Barrett, 48, is a favorite of the religious right, and her deep ties to her Catholic faith earned her a grilling from Democrats during her confirmation hearings to the federal bench. California Sen. Dianne Feinstein memorably told her: “The dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern.”
Barrett responded: “It’s never appropriate for a judge to impose that judge’s personal convictions, whether they arise from faith or anywhere else, on the law.”
Having previously written that Supreme Court precedents are not set in stone, the question of whether Barrett would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade would loom large over her nomination.
She and her husband, Assistant US Attorney Jesse Barrett, live in Indiana and have seven children.
Britt Grant
A former justice on the Georgia Supreme Court, Grant has links to Kavanaugh, having clerked for the jurist on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
He swore Grant, 42, in to her current post on the 11th Circuit US Court of Appeals, Atlanta, in August 2018 — amid his own high court confirmation — lauding her as a “fair and even-handed” judge.
A graduate of Stanford Law School, where she was president of the conservative Federalist Society chapter, Grant previously served a stint in George W. Bush’s administration under various roles. She is married and has three children.
Amul Thapar
Thapar was a strong contender to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, which ultimately went to Justice Neil Gorsuch.
A former Kentucky judge and US attorney, Thapar, 51, was the first federal district court judge of South Asian descent, named in 2007 and would be the first Indian American to reach the Supreme Court.
He was confirmed to the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in May 2017. A graduate of the University of California-Berkeley law school, he is married with three children.
Allison Eid
A former law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, Eid served for a decade on the Supreme Court of her home state of Colorado.
One of the names on Trump’s original 2016 list of potential high court nominees, Eid, 55, succeeded Gorsuch on the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in 2017.
She is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a former professor at the University of Colorado Law School. She met her attorney hubby, Troy, when they were both undergraduates at Stanford University. They have two children.
Joan Larsen
A former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, Larsen spent many years of her career as a professor University of Michigan School of Law.
She served in the George W. Bush administration in the US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel.
Larsen, 51, was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in 2015 before put up by Trump for the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in 2017.
She graduated first in her class from Northwestern University School of Law.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, noted that, “There is no replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg and we all know it.
“She is the type of personality that comes few times in history,” he said.
“She was one of the most consistent and clear and courageous voices in the history of the Court.
“Her replacement by President Donald Trump could prove the most consequential and transformative nomination in the history of the modern Court. An array of legal doctrine currently dangle by 5-4 majorities.”