Update: One of Donald Trump’s proposed Supreme Court picks is pretty far from a Trump fan, according to The Huffington Post.
Justice Don Willett, a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, has spent the past year openly mocking Trump on Twitter, including one tweet that specifically references "The Donald" naming justices to the Supreme Court.
Willett isn’t the only one to have likely been blindsided by finding his name on Trump’s list. Justice David Stras, of the Minnesota Supreme Court, said via a spokesman that he had been unaware that his name was featured on the list until the announcement, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune.
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Donald Trump haiku—
— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) June 16, 2015
Who would the Donald
Name to #SCOTUS? The mind reels.
*weeps—can't finish tweet* pic.twitter.com/a326AP0mN1
"We'll rebuild the Death Star. It'll be amazing, believe me. And the rebels will pay for it."
— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) April 8, 2016
—Darth Trump pic.twitter.com/y25LADg15J
This story was originally posted at 3:00 p.m.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday afternoon, The Associated Press reported.
Trump released a list of 11 proposed nominees to fill an opening created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. President Obama's pick for the post, Merrick Garland, has run into opposition from Senate Republicans, who want to wait until after the election to fill the vacancy.
Leading Trump's list are Steven Colloton of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Raymond Gruender, also of the 8th Circuit, and Allison Eid of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Other members on the list are Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, Joan Larsen, Thomas Lee, William Pryor, David Stras, Diane Sykes, and Don Willett.
Trump has used the subject of Supreme Court nominees as a way to try to persuade a wary party establishment that he can be trusted as a presidential candidate. In March, he announced that he was making a list of possible nominees in consultation with the conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, and that, if elected, he would make selections only from that list, Time reported.
He has also used the opportunity to affirm his commitment to conservative stances. In an interview with Fox News on May 10, he said that, if elected, he intended to appoint pro-life justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave women the right to abortion. Earlier, Trump had been criticized by conservatives, who cited the candidate's fluctuating stance on the issue of abortion.
For more on how a Supreme Court justice pick works, check out Refinery29's easy guide to the nomination process.
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