Noah Feldman, Columnist

Be Smart About Trump’s Supreme Court Pick

Here’s the conventional (and unconventional) wisdom about the most likely nominees.

July 9, 2018 at 1:19 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Waiting on a fresh face.
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I don’t claim to know who President Donald Trump will pick Monday night to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. But I do claim to know what we’ll be saying about it. Here, in alphabetical order, is what will soon be the conventional wisdom. Plus, what you should really think, where it differs.

Amy Coney Barrett: If Trump picks Barrett, the conventional view will be that he is playing to his evangelical base by selecting the most overtly religious nominee, one likely to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Democrats will say they have a shot at blocking her by holding onto conservative Senate Democrats and turning moderate, pro-choice Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski to vote against Barrett. We will have to fasten our seatbelts for a fight over Catholicism generally, and over People of Praise, the tightly knit Christian group to which Barrett belongs.