Trump weighs Barrett, Lagoa for Court seat

President Donald Trump and his team are weighing a key decision this weekend: whether to nominate a Supreme Court candidate who already has been carefully vetted and interviewed, or take extra time to select someone newer to his process who could yield a bigger election-year payoff.

As he put two men on the Supreme Court during his term, Trump also interviewed Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, according to two people familiar with the matter. Barrett is considered the leading contender because of her conservative credentials, Trump’s interest in picking a woman and the fact that she’s already been interviewed, according to four people familiar with the White House process.

But Trump is also considering at least two other women who he had not interviewed but emerged on his expanded list this month, according to four people familiar with the process. One is former Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Lagoa, now a federal appeals court judge who is Cuban American, who has the strong backing of Trump ally Gov. Ron DeSantis and whose nomination could support Trump’s efforts to win Florida this fall.

In a call with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday, Trump mentioned Barrett and Lagoa, according to one of the people. “There’s a presumption that the leading short-lister is Barrett,” a Senate GOP aide said.

Another is Allison Jones Rushing, an appeals court judge in her late 30s who would be among the youngest justices ever to serve on the court, ensuring a conservative in the seat for even longer than others.

Trump is expected to announce a nomination by the middle of next week, according to two people familiar with the plans, allowing for a few more days of mourning for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Friday.

A third person said if he waits until after Wednesday the White House will have trouble pushing a replacement through this year. “It’s important to simplify the process,” said a former White House official.

The president on Saturday called on fellow Republicans to move quickly in filling the seat. “We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump tweeted. “We have this obligation, without delay!”

Later in the day, he told reporters that the Senate voting on his pick before the election “would be very good,” but indicated he’d leave that decision to the Senate.

Trump’s aides and allies see the Supreme Court vacancy as a potential game-changer for his struggling reelection campaign, with the president under fire throughout the spring and summer for his coronavirus response and struggling economy.

Lagoa is on a list of names that Trump released earlier this month as possible replacements. But unlike Barrett, people close to the process say Lagoa has demographic and geographic advantages in her favor when it comes to the politics of Senate confirmation and the presidential election: Lagoa hails from Trump’s must-win state of Florida and she’s Cuban American.

“Justice Lagoa is perfect,” said one source, who has discussed the matter with White House officials but was not authorized to speak on record. “The president wants a conservative jurist and he wants to win the biggest battleground. How do Democrats in the Senate vote against a Latina?”

A second Republican who has close ties to Florida said that “Lagoa is at the top of the list. She checks a lot of boxes.”

But some conservative groups could object based on what they see as Lagoa’s insufficient record on abortion, the ultimate litmus test on the right. One prominent GOP senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, has already said he would only vote for a nominee who has affirmed that Roe v. Wade was “wrongly decided.”

Barrett came to be well-liked among white evangelicals after the former law professor was criticized during a 2017 confirmation hearing by Democratic Sen. Diane Feinstein, who said “the dogma lives loudly within you, and that’s a concern,” a reference to her Catholic faith and the issue of abortion. “The base loves her. They want her,” said a former Senate Republican aide. “She’s young, Catholic, conservative.”

Barrett has her own geographic advantage: She hails from Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence, and she’s well-known and liked by the White House legal team, which vetted her when she was nominated for the appellate court.

One risk for her nomination is that she supported a November 2018 statement from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who criticized Trump for blasting an opinion from an “Obama judge.”

Rushing has served on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the past 18 months. She’s been a darling of social conservatives and a target of Democrats and LGBTQ groups for a previous internship at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian nonprofit based in Arizona. Rushing was confirmed on a straight party line vote in 2019.

Of the three women, Lagoa had the easiest and most bipartisan confirmation hearing. The Senate confirmed her by 80-15 compared to 55-43 for Barrett and 53-44 for Rushing.

Answering questions from reporters Saturday, Trump called Barrett “very highly respected.” Asked about Lagoa, he said, “I’ve heard incredible things about her. I don’t know her. She’s Hispanic and highly respected. Miami. Highly respected.“

Trump could conceivably interview Lagoa, Rushing or any others by phone or video if he wanted to move quickly on newer names.

“Historically those have been done by the president or the vice president,” said Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network. “I don’t know how 2020 changes that in terms of traveling and getting people in from different places. But I expect that there will be interviews happening in the next few days.”

The fact that Trump likes to meet possible nominees in person to size them up could factor into the expedited timeline, or lead him to focus on a candidate he’s already met.

“I don’t know that there will be much travel into or out of the White House for interviews,” said the Senate GOP aide. “But even though it can all be done virtually, the president did say he liked [Justice Neil] Gorsuch’s look when he met with him, so who truly knows.”

During his earlier nomination decisions, Trump also interviewed Amul Thapar and Raymond Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, Tom Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and William H. Pryor Jr. of the U.S. Circuit of the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, according to two people familiar with those processes.

Trump’s updated list of potential picks came just last week following a Supreme Court term that dealt him a series of blows on cases pertaining to hot-button issues that have fired up his base of conservative evangelicals in the past, including immigration, abortion and LGBTQ protections.

McConnell vowed Friday night that the nominee will be put to the Senate floor for a vote, though some of his fellow Republicans balked and Democrats quickly called for a delay until after the Nov. 3 election when control of the White House and Senate could flip.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is expected to take a leading role in the fight on Capitol Hill. The former House member from North Carolina and founder of the conservative Freedom Caucus has played a leading role in legislative negotiations since he was appointed earlier this year. But some in the White House are weighing appointing an outside leader to take on the effort, someone with experience managing a massive Supreme Court nomination.

“I can see Mark Meadows wanting a role in this since he knows the conservative movement and Capitol Hill inside and out,” said a person familiar with the process.

Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Priebus, played a significant role when Trump nominated Gorsuch in 2017. But the following year when Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, then-chief of staff John Kelly left the heavy lifting to the White House counsel at the time, Don McGahn.

“I think because the president is up for reelection and this will become the defining issue of the election, this will be an all-hands-on-deck effort inside the White House,” said Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project , a group pushing to confirm Trump’s judicial nominees that also helped push through the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh nominations.

The White House also needs to quickly move to build a communications team — generally of public relations professionals and former law clerks — to lead the messaging and help shepherd the nominee through the process. That began to take shape Friday night just after word of Ginsburg‘s death around 7:30 p.m.

Meridith McGraw and Nancy Cook contributed to this report.