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Everywhere you turn in Trumpland, you’ll find a slew of Thomas’ former clerks in high places. They are serving in the White House counsel’s office (Greg Katsas, John Eisenberg, David Morrell); awaiting appointment to the federal judiciary (Allison H. Eid, David Stras); leading the departments of the Treasury (Heath P. Tarbert, Sigal Mandelker) and Transportation (Steven G. Bradbury); defending the travel ban in court (Jeffrey Wall); and heading the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (Neomi Rao). Thomas clerks are also working with dark money groups to execute Trump’s agenda (Carrie Severino) and boosting him in the far-right media (Laura Ingraham).

[Jeffrey Wall

Former Thomas clerk Jeffrey Wall is now Trump’s acting solicitor general. Department of Justice

In an era in which former clerks seem, on balance, to be drifting away from Washington jobs, a whole lot of members of the old Thomas crew are moving back home. It’s near impossible to count every former Supreme Court clerk who is now playing a role in the sprawling executive branch, but it’s easy to see that an enormous number of Thomas protégés are stepping into positions of immense power. Every expert we spoke to, among them the New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin, agreed the Trump administration has brought on a striking number of Thomas clerks.

To be sure, a number of clerks who trained under Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and other conservative justices have taken jobs with the government. But Stephen Vladeck, who teaches law at the University of Texas and serves as a Supreme Court analyst for CNN, says it’s instructive to compare the career paths of clerks who worked for Thomas and those who served under Scalia. The latter, Vladeck says, have gravitated more toward the conservative establishment—institutions like law schools and legal foundations. The Thomas clerks, who have “a bit more of a libertarian or populist streak,” are a more logical fit for the key legal jobs serving the Trump White House. It is the Thomas alums that have risen to prominence in the past six months, and they are working zealously to put their mentor’s ideas into action.

Consider Wall, Trump’s acting solicitor general, who left his law firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, to join the administration. Wall is the attorney who, back in May, so adroitly argued the travel ban case before the lower federal appeals courts and aggressively litigated the case in pleadings this summer at the Supreme Court. It was Wall who insisted on the “presumption of regularity” in the litigation, cautioning the judges to focus on the long tradition of deference to executive authority—especially in the realm of national security—and to ignore Trump’s incendiary tweets and campaign statements.

Wall has said that the judges for whom he has clerked are still his “close friends.” Perhaps most significantly, at an event last year celebrating Thomas’ 25th anniversary on the court, Wall defended the justice’s singular relevance and influence, rejecting any criticism that Thomas hasn’t had a profound impact on the court as “pernicious and wrongheaded.” (He’s quite right about that; liberals consistently underestimate Thomas’ influence.) Describing his former boss as an “intellectual catalyst,” Wall said that Thomas “is content to sow ideas that result later in changes in the law.”

That’s precisely the influence we are now seeing at work across the federal government. In arguing the travel ban cases, Wall insisted that limiting Muslim immigrants’ access to the United States does not amount to unlawful animus, that the president must have near-total authority to control the nation’s borders, and that his decisions must not be second-guessed by the courts. These are classic Thomas principles, and the justice himself embraced them in a partial dissent when the court allowed only part of the ban to take effect.

Thomas’ influence can also be seen in the work of Neomi Rao,whom the Senate recently confirmed to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Until her appointment as Trump’s regulatory czar, Rao served as a professor at George Mason University’s law school—an institution that, at Rao’s urging, was recently renamed in honor of Antonin Scalia. Rao has devoted her academic career to criticizing the administrative state—the web of agencies and committees that promulgate federal regulations. Her attacks on the government sit at the intersection of two quintessential Thomas principles: an aversion to regulations (especially labor and environmental rules) and a hostility toward limits on executive authority.

[Neomi Rao

Former Thomas clerk Neomi Rao is set to lead the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Screenshot via YouTube

Rao believes, for instance, that independent agencies are unconstitutional. These commissions—which include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Communications Commission, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Reserve—flourish in part because they are removed from political pressures. Rao would like to change that. She believes that since these agencies are part of the executive branch, the president must be empowered to fire and replace their leaders.

Thomas sees his clerks as trainees in a very specific ideological program.

It seems extremely likely that Rao has been placed in her perch at OIRA not only to bust traditional agency regulations but also to bring independent agency rules under her purview. While her office does not currently review rules by independent agencies, she has argued that it should. Thomas has strongly suggested that all agencies within the executive branch, independent or not, must ultimately be accountable to the president. If Rao gives herself veto power over these agencies’ rules, she will bring Thomas’ vision a step closer to the reality. In the process, she could nullify whatever vestiges of liberalism are still lingering from the Obama era. For example, the EEOC recently took the position that federal law protects gay employees, directly contradicting Trump’s Justice Department. If Rao’s view wins out, Trump could fire as many EEOC commissioners as he needs to in order to reverse the agency’s position. Thomas, who takes a dim view of nondiscrimination law and gay rights, would be doubly proud.

The justice must already be delighted at the work of his former clerk Allison Eid, whom Trump has nominated to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Eid currently serves on the Colorado Supreme Court, where she established her conservative bona fides by dissenting from a ruling that prohibited the state from sending public funds to private religious schools. The court’s decision was compelled by the Colorado Constitution, which bars the government from spending “any public fund or moneys … to help support or sustain any school … controlled by any church or sectarian denomination.”But according to Eid, this constitutional bar on public funding of parochial schools was likely motivated by unconstitutional animus toward religion—even though its plain text indicates nothing more than a desire to observe the separation of church and state.

Eid’s dissent, which she wrote in 2015, maps neatly onto Thomas’ own concurrence in 2017’s Trinity Lutheran v. Comer. In Trinity, the court ruled that Missouri could not deny a grant to a Christian school solely on account of its “religious character.” (A day after the court decided Trinity, it vacated the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision on parochial schools, effectively vindicating Eid’s dissent.) Thomas asserted that the court had not gone far enough in Trinity: He wrote that the government may never “discriminate against religion” by refusing to subsidize houses of worship and sectarian programs. Thomas, like Eid, appears to believe that when a state declines to fund religious activity—even out of respect for the Establishment Clause—it engages in unconstitutional discrimination. When Eid is confirmed, he will gain a critical ally in his fight for ever-more entanglement between church and state. And she will be the first of many Trump picks who are as immutable in their views as their former bosses. This is a movement and a cause, not just constitutional theory.

[Allison H. Eid

Trump has nominated former Thomas clerk Allison H. Eid to the 10th Circuit. Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images]

Thomas, who has described his clerks as his “little family,” sees them as trainees in a very specific ideological program.He famously invites them to watch The Fountainhead at his home each yearand has taken them on annual trips to Gettysburg to reflect on what he views as the conservative lessons of the Civil War. He also tutors his clerks on his judicial philosophy, instilling in them a profound reverence for his own vision of the rule of law.

It’s no surprise that so many of Thomas’ clerks share a belief system with their former boss, and with each other. Thomas is known to be ideologically rigid when it comes to hiring (and in everything else). Prior to 2013, every clerk he’d brought on during his Supreme Court tenure had first served under an appellate-level judge who’d been appointed by a Republican president.* Even Scalia occasionally hired “counter-clerks,” liberal-leaning men and women who had clerked for Democratic appointees on lower courts. Thomas has expressed no interest in this kind of ideological diversity. (To his credit, he does value educational diversity, intentionally hiring clerks from lower-ranked schools. Compare that with Scalia, who was openly biased against schools outside the T14.)

[Trump’s reactionary view of conservatism is causing a schism at the Supreme Court.

Like all justices, Thomas tends to get his clerks from a handful of feeder judges. Thomas’ chief feeders are J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, Laurence Silberman and David Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit, Edith Jones of the 5th Circuit, and William Pryor of the 11th Circuit—all rock-ribbed conservatives except for Wilkinson, who has recently drifted to the center. By drawing from this pool, Thomas ensures he won’t hear many progressive counterpoints to his conservative instincts. And that’s OK with him. Thomas has said that picking clerks is like “selecting mates in a foxhole,”explaining: “I won’t hire clerks who have profound disagreements with me. It’s like trying to train a pig. It wastes your time, and it aggravates the pig.”

...

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Allison Hartwell Eid (born January 1965) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She previously served as an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.[1]

Early life and education

Born in Seattle and raised in Spokane, Washington[2] by a single mother,[3] Eid earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies with distinction in 1987 from Stanford University, where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.After graduating, she served as a Special Assistant and Speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education, William Bennett.[4] She left the Department of Education to attend the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an articles editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. She graduated in 1991 with a Juris Doctor with high honors and was elected to the Order of the Coif.[1][5]

Legal career

After graduating from law school, Eid served as a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States.[4] After completing her clerkships, she went on to become a commercial and appellate litigator at the law firm of **Arnold & Porter**.[4] In 1998, she left Arnold & Porter to serve as an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, where she taught courses on Constitutional law, torts, and federalism.[1][5]

Colorado Solicitor General and Supreme Court of Colorado service

In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Eidto serve on the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, which writes the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and sponsors the Oliver Wendell Holmes Lecture.[1][5][6] In 2005, Republican Attorney General John Suthers appointed Eid to serve as Solicitor General of Colorado.[7] A year later, Colorado Governor Bill Owens appointed Eid to serve as the 95th justice of the Colorado Supreme Court on February 15, 2006.[1] She took office on March 13, 2006. In 2008, 75% of Colorado voters voted to retain Eid on the Supreme Court.[8][9]

In May 2017, Eid found that imposing an eighty-four year sentence on a fifteen-year-old murderer did not violate the Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition on sentencing juveniles to life without parole because the punishment was styled as an aggregate term-of-years sentence.[10][11] In May 2016, she was included on President Donald Trump's list of potential Supreme Court justices.[12]

Federal judicial service

On June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Eid to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge Neil Gorsuch, who was elevated to the United States Supreme Court.[13][14][15] On September 20, 2017, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[16] On October 26, 2017, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 roll call vote.[17] The United States Senate confirmed her by a56–41vote on November 2, 2017. She received her judicial commission the next day.

Personal life

Eid met her husband, Troy, when he was standing in line at a Stanford University dorm cafeteria while she was working as a student food service workerand he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily; she later said: "It was love at first sight in the meal card line."[18] In 2006, a few months after Allison Eid was appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court, President George W. Bush appointed Troy Eid as the 41st United States Attorney for the District of Colorado and the first Egyptian-American U.S. Attorney in the country's history.[1][19][20] The Eids reside in Morrison, Colorado, with their son Alex and daughter Emily.[21]

Electoral history

2008

Colorado Supreme Court – Retain Allison H. Eid, November 4, 2008[22]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |

NonpartisanYes1,338,57174.58%
NonpartisanNo456,33725.42%
Majority882,23449.16%49.16%49.16%
Total votes1,794,908100.00%100.00%100.00%

See also

References

  1. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-official_1-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-official_1-2) d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-official_1-3) e(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-official_1-4) f(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H._Eid#cite_ref-official_1-5) "Allison H. Eid". Colorado Supreme Court. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  2. ^ Kyle Henley (February 16, 2006). "Conservative picked for bench". Colorado Springs Gazette.
  3. ^ "Gorsuch-like Nominee Eid 'Inspiration' as Working Mother". www.bna.com.
  4. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-ALJreport_4-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-ALJreport_4-2) "Nominee Report" (PDF). Alliance for Justice. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  5. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-lawschool_5-1) c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_H.Eid#cite_ref-lawschool_5-2) "Allison Hartwell Eid – Adjunct Faculty". University of Colorado Law School. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  6. ^ "President Bush Appoints CU-Boulder Law Professor To Oliver Wendell Holmes Committee". University of Colorado Law School. May 23, 2002. Archived from the original on November 18, 2011.
  7. ^ "Allison Eid is new Colorado Solicitor General". University of Colorado Law School. July 30, 2005.
  8. ^ "Colorado Supreme Court 2008 Election Results". Denver Post. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  9. ^ "Official Publication of the Abstract of Votes Cast" (PDF). Colorado Secretary of State. p. 119. Retrieved April 6, 2011.[permanent ^dead link]
  10. ^ Note, Recent Case: Colorado Supreme Court Holds that Aggregate Term-of-Years Sentences Can Never Implicate Eighth Amendment Restrictions on Juvenile Life Without Parole, 131 Harv. L. Rev. 1187 (2018).
  11. ^ Lucero v. People, 394 P.3d 1128 (Colo. 2017).
  12. ^ COLVIN, JILL. "TRUMP UNVEILS LIST OF HIS TOP SUPREME COURT PICKS". Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 19, 2016. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  13. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Candidate Nominations". whitehouse.gov – via National Archives.
  14. ^ "Twelve Nominations Sent to the Senate Today". whitehouse.gov – via National Archives.
  15. ^ "Presidential Nomination 585, 115th United States Congress". United States Congress. June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  16. ^ "Nominations – United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". www.judiciary.senate.gov.
  17. ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – October 26, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee" (PDF).
  18. ^ Sara Burnett (September 28, 2006). "U.S. attorney craves tasks". Rocky Mountain News. p. 20A.
  19. ^ "Bush nominates Troy Eid as U.S. attorney for Colorado". Casper Star Tribune. Associated Press. June 10, 2006.
  20. ^ "Faculty Profile – Troy A. Eid". University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  21. ^ "Justice Allison H. Eid (CO)". Project Vote Smart. Retrieved April 6, 2011.[permanent ^dead link]
  22. ^ "Official Publication of the Abstract of Votes Cast for the 2008 Primary, 2008 General" (PDF). Office of the Secretary of State of Colorado. June 29, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2018.

External links

Legal officesLegal officesLegal offices

Preceded by

Alan J. Gilbert

Solicitor General of Colorado

2005–2006

Succeeded by

Daniel D. Domenico

Preceded by

Rebecca Kourlis

Associate Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court

2006–2017

Succeeded by

Melissa Hart

Preceded by

Neil Gorsuch

Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

2017–present

Incumbent

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Judges of the United States courts of appeals

Categories: 

...nomination of Amy Coney Barrett

Main article: Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination

President Trump nominates Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020. The following day, Trump stated that any successor of Ginsburg would "most likely" be a woman.[41] On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Trump intended to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. On October 26, 2020, Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52–48.[42][43] She was sworn in the next day.

Possible nominees

Below is a list of individuals which President Trump identified as his potential nominees for Supreme Court appointments. Most of them were revealed in two lists released by the Trump campaign in 2016. Others were added in a revised list released by the White House on November 17, 2017[44] and a fourth list released on September 9, 2020[45]

Following the nomination of Amul Thapar to the Sixth Circuit, it was reported that Trump might try to season some of the candidates on his list with federal appellate court experience prior to potential nomination to the Supreme Court.[46] Indeed, Trump later elevated a number of state court judges from his list to fill vacant positions on the federal Courts of Appeals: Joan Larsen (Sixth Circuit), David Stras (Eighth Circuit),Allison H. Eid (Tenth Circuit), Don Willett (Fifth Circuit), and Britt Grant (Eleventh Circuit). Conversely, two previous Trump appointees to the Courts of Appeals—Amy Coney Barrett (Seventh Circuit) and Kevin Newsom (Eleventh Circuit)—were later added to the list of potential Supreme Court candidates.

Despite speculation that Trump might consider other candidates for a possible second Supreme Court nomination, he said in May 2017 that he would make his next appointment from the same list he used to choose Gorsuch (the combined 21 names given on either of the two lists he released during the campaign), describing the list as "a big thing" for him and his supporters.[47] Trump added five further candidates to the list on November 17, 2017.

Note:

Names marked with a single asterisk (*) were included on the original short list of eleven potential candidates for the Scalia vacancy released by the Trump campaign on May 18, 2016.

Names marked with a double asterisk (**) were included on the additional short list of ten more potential candidates released on September 23, 2016.

Names marked with a dagger (†) were added to the revised short list of November 17, 2017.

Names marked with a double dagger (‡) were included on the additional short list of twenty more potential candidates released on September 9, 2020.

Courts of Appeals

United States courts of appeals

United States district courts

State supreme courts

Executive branch

United States senators

State executive branches

See also