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Experts predict Trump will tap his own appellate judges for Supreme Court in the event of a retirement

Experts predict Trump will tap his own appellate judges for Supreme Court in the event of a retirement

President-elect Trump can be expected to stick to his previous judicial philosophies when looking for a potential Supreme Court nominee if a justice retired from the high court, experts say.  Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, all three of whom were under the age of 55 at the time of their appointments. Likewise, Trump appointed more than 50 federal appellate judges during his first term. Politicians and media personalities have called for the older justices on the court to step down, particularly justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, in anticipation of a Trump presidency. Such calls were also directed toward justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan prior to the general election. Politico recently reported Democrats are discussing whether Sotomayor should resign during their two remaining months in control of the Senate.  JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR FACES PRESSURE TO RETIRE AHEAD OF TRUMP TAKING OFFICE: REPORT “No one other than justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed and, frankly, just crass,” conservative legal activist Leonard Leo told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Justices Thomas and Alito have given their lives to our country and our Constitution and should be treated with more dignity and respect than they are getting from some pundits.”  Trump may have the opportunity to further bolster the conservative majority by appointing younger justices if any justices retire. “I think you can start counting down the days until Thomas retires,” said Devon Ombres, senior director of courts and legal policy at CAPAction. When asked where Sotomayor and Kagan stand, Ombres said, “They’re not leaving now.” “We’re starting to already see conservative activists take the jump in favor of having justices Alito and Thomas retire so that President Trump can replace them with nominees in their 50s as a way of preserving conservative majorities for the next 15 to 20 years on the court,” John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, told Fox News Digital. Yoo noted, however, that even if such retirements were to take place, the balance of the court as it stands now would remain the same.  ‘IDEOLOGICAL BALANCE’: SUPREME COURT’S CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY TO STAY NO MATTER WHO WINS ELECTION, EXPERTS SAY “It’s not clear to me that they should retire,” Yoo said. “They’re in their mid-70s, and they both seem to be in good health. And they’re both at the top of their game.” Yoo added that if there was a retirment, Trump would likely look to the appellate judges he appointed during his first term as potential nominees.  “I think Trump, given his practices, would probably favor appointing people that he had appointed already to the circuit courts,” Yoo said. “And he has a lot to pick from because he picked a lot of young conservatives.” Ombres specifically noted judges James C. Ho and Stuart Kyle Duncan on the Fifth Circuit as potential Trump nominees to the Supreme Court. Of the 17 active judges on the court, six were Trump appointees. HERE ARE THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT CANDIDATES FOR TOP POSTS IN TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION  While Yoo did not pick out particular names, he predict4ed Trump will continue to fall back on certain judges.  “Going by who Trump picked already, he picked people who seemed committed to originalism, people who had Justice Department backgrounds. He picked some people like that.” In anticipation of his first administration in 2016, Trump released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. It was later expanded ahead of the general election that year and once again in 2017. The list proved to be a tactic to ease the minds of Republicans concerned about Trump’s capacity to appoint conservative justices to the court.  Yoo said he does not expect Trump will repeat himself this time around with an updated list.  “I think last time he did it, he was trying to win over the Republican Party, and he was an outsider. Nobody knew whether he was conservative or not. And, so, he put out that list,” Yoo said. “And, so, it’s actually quite clever of Trump at that time to release the names and stick to them as people he would appoint to the Supreme Court because it really committed him in the minds of conservatives.  “And he kept his word. And I think that he doesn’t need to now because people can see his track record.”

Top pro-life groups reveal agenda for second Trump administration amid ‘abortion fearmongering’

Top pro-life groups reveal agenda for second Trump administration amid ‘abortion fearmongering’

FIRST ON FOX: Leading pro-life activist groups are already shifting from celebrating former President Donald Trump’s victory to drawing up plans for his second term, Fox News Digital has learned. A memorandum shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America (SBA), one of the country’s largest and most influential pro-life groups, lays out the group’s plans and priorities for the upcoming administration in what they hope will serve as the beginning of a roadmap for pro-life victories in the years to come. It states that while Democrats spent $570 million on abortion advertising, Trump’s blowout victory is evidence that the American people do not support the unrestricted abortion access endorsed by Vice President Kamala Harris and many top Democrats. “Democrats’ abortion fearmongering campaign was a spectacular failure in the first presidential election since the reversal of Roe,” the memo says. “Meanwhile, President T rump did what he’s done better than anyone since 2016: he effectively cast the Democrats as the real extremists on abortion who support abortion even in the seventh, eighth and ninth month of pregnancy and even refuse to support giving basic medical care to children who survive attempted abortions.” CALIFORNIA’S SHOCKING 2024 ELECTORAL MAP FLIP A ‘WAKEUP FOR DEMOCRATS’  “With victory in hand,” the memo asks: “What’s next?” First, the memo states that the Trump administration must immediately undo every abortion policy instituted over the last four years under the Biden-Harris administration. “The accomplishments from President Trump’s first term become the baseline for the second term,” the memo continues. “However, in order to even get to the baseline, there is much that must be undone from the Biden-Harris regime, which worked tirelessly to promote abortion in every nook and cranny of the federal government. It all must be undone.” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA, told Fox News Digital that her group will push for the “cleansing” of tax funding of abortion during the first 100 days of the Trump administration through the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services and other government agencies, as well as through grants to groups like Planned Parenthood. Dannenfelser added that the Trump administration should clarify what resources and options are available to women who do not want to choose abortion during the first 100 days. She also said Trump should reinstate the “Mexico City Policy” that prohibits the government from pushing or paying for abortion internationally. GOP CONGRESSMAN-ELECT REVEALS AMBITIOUS 100-DAY PLAN FOR TRUMP ADMIN: ‘NOT GOING TO GET FOOLED AGAIN’ Dannenfelser did not take a national abortion limit off the table, though she admitted it is “not a day one” issue. While the pro-life movement had a lot to celebrate this past week, seven states passed sweeping amendments to enshrine abortion into their state law, significantly expanding abortion in those states. This followed a series of similar amendments being passed by voters in California, Ohio, Michigan and Vermont. Dannenfelser acknowledged that she understands Americans are not ready to accept the protection of all unborn life after 50 years under Roe v. Wade, but said she believes there should be at least a “minimum standard” of protection for the unborn across the nation.  SBA noted in its memo that “to go on offense and truly defeat the abortion industry in the long term, we must strengthen the pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family resolve of the Republican Party, centered on the unalienable right to life for the unborn child that exists under the 14th Amendment.” Dannenfelser said that the job of the pro-life movement over the next few years will be to help advance the cultural conversation about what minimum standards the country should enact to protect unborn life. She pointed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who she said provides a model of a leader who is effectively engaging in and promoting cultural conversation about abortion. Florida, along with South Dakota and Nebraska, became the first states to defeat any abortion initiative since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Dannenfelser said that DeSantis’ leadership “showed exactly what you do” to win pro-life victories. “You don’t pretend it’s not happening; you go on offense against extremism,” she said. “DeSantis showed that when you go full-on, you defy all the prognosticators and fend off that horrible initiative.”  SBA is not the only pro-life group mobilizing since Trump’s victory. Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America (SFLA), told Fox News Digital that her group has also developed a plan titled “Make America Pro-Life Again” that “encompasses both federal action as well as state actions.” For the early days of the administration, Hawkins said SFLA would prioritize four main policies: 1) Appointing pro-life officials to federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, FDA and DOJ, 2) Releasing pro-life activists imprisoned under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, completely defunding Planned Parenthood and to investigate the harmful chemicals used by chemical abortion pills. Hawkins also said that she will continue to advocate for abortion restrictions on the federal level, but like Dannenfelser, she granted that will not be likely to happen soon. For now, she said that Trump’s “day one” priority should be defunding Planned Parenthood. “Students for Life America has always been very clear; abortion is 100% federal. The pro-life movement is clear that abortion is 100% federal. Why? Because your right to not be killed because you’re simply inconvenient to another does not begin and end at state lines,” she told Fox News Digital. “We disagree with President Trump on this point. However, we are able to work with President Trump at this point and the first thing he must do is defund and debar Planned Parenthood.” Also looming large behind both these groups’ plans is the possibility of a Supreme Court justice retiring or passing away. Neither Dannenfelser nor Hawkins divulged who they might support for a Supreme Court nomination, but, like before, Hawkins said she expects Trump to appoint justices supporting the unborn. “Our ask of President Trump in 2015