Who's On Deck?—Analysis: Who's on Trump's list to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy?

Analysis: Who's on Trump's list to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy?

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement Wednesday, freeing up a spot on the nation's highest court for one of 25 people on the list from which President Donald Trump has said he will chose a successor.

That list was first floated during the nomination process for the successor to deceased Justice Antonin Scalia and put together by the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society. Legal analysts from the left to the right have called the judges on it "distinguished," and "outstanding," a deep bench of originalist and textualist jurists generally in the mold of Trump's first appointee, Neil Gorsuch.

"The ones whom I know on the list are actually very impressive people," liberal constitutional scholar Akhil Amar told MSNBC Wednesday night. "I'm a Democrat, I voted for Hillary Clinton. But the list is a distinguished list."

The potential nominees come from all across the country, covering 17 states between them. There are five women and three people of color on the list, although two of the combined eight—Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Amul Thapar—are considered frontrunners. They graduated from a variety of law schools, notable given that every judge on the current court attended Harvard or Yale for their J.D.s.

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