Should a vacancy on the Supreme Court occur in the near future, the president will almost certainly choose a nominee from the same list of 21 potential justices he released during the campaign.
That list included recently confirmed Justice Neil Gorsuch, the White House told Newsmax on Thursday afternoon.
Citing the remark April 19 by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa: 'I would expect a resignation by this summer" – we asked White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders if the president would choose from his 2016 list or bring other names into the equation.
"My understanding is that he would stay focused and draw from that list," Sanders told us, "So, I don't see any reason for him to go a different direction."
"That list" refers to a compilation of 21 names of potential candidates for the high court that Trump first released in May and later expanded in September. The list, which Trump drew up with the assistance of the conservative Heritage Foundation, has won high praise from conservatives.
Along with Gorsuch, the list included two other conservative judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals who were reportedly runners-up in Trump's selection of a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia: Bill Pryor of Alabama and Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania.
Others on the list include such conservative favorites as U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Diana Sykes of Wisconsin and State Supreme Court Judges Don Willett (Texas) and Bob Young (Michigan).
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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