Reuters/Eric Thayer
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on aboard Air Force One en route to Bedminster, New Jersey, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., June 29, 2018.
- President Donald Trump has said he'll select his Supreme Court nominee on Monday, July 9.
- Trump will choose from his 25-member shortlist, and has narrowed it down to five candidates.
- Trump is reportedly looking for his nominee to possess three key qualities.
President Donald Trump is little more than one week from deciding on his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on Wednesday.
Trump tweeted on Saturday he would make the decision on July 9, and the White House has said his choice will come from the shortlist of 25 candidates he had compiled during his campaign and added to last year.
Though Trump is known for frequently breaking with tradition, making decisions on impulse, and ignoring the guidance of his advisors, he is reportedly listening closely to the advice of the White House counsel Don McGahn and his judicial adviser Leonard Leo, who serves as the executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society.
One adviser told The Washington Post that Trump is set on selecting candidate with three main qualities:
Firstly, Trump has said he wants an "extraordinarily well qualified" nominee with sterling credentials on his or her resume.
Trump has reportedly sought to pick someone with a law degree from either Harvard or Yale, and the adviser told The Post that Trump wants the candidate to have an impressive portfolio of academic writing. The adviser acknowledged, however, that Trump has no desire to read the candidate's writing - only to know that it exists.
Associated Press/Carolyn Kaster
President Donald Trump shakes hands with 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, his choice for Supreme Court associate justice in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.
Lastly, the adviser said Trump wants his pick to "interpret the Constitution the way the framers meant it to be."
The final point echoes the legal philosophy of Trump's last Supreme Court pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch, a renowned textualist, meaning someone who seeks to interpret laws according to their plain text over the intent of their writers or the laws' consequences.
From the 25-member shortlist, Trump said Friday he had already narrowed down his choices to "about five" candidates.
According to The Post, those five include US Appeals Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, US Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, US Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, US Appeals Court Judge Amul Thapar of Kentucky, and US Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, whom Trump had strongly considered when he was choosing his first Supreme Court nominee.
"We have to pick a great one," Trump said at a North Dakota rally on Wednesday. "You know, there's so many elements go into the making of a great justice of the Supreme Court. You've got to hit every one of them."