VanDyke on Trump’s Supreme Court short list

WASHINGTON — Less than a year after nominating former Nevada Solicitor General Lawrence VanDyke to serve on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Trump put VanDyke’s name on his list of potential U.S. Supreme Court picks.

In 2016, candidate Donald Trump released two lists of potential picks that included now-Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court to assure social conservatives of his strict constructionist bona fides.

Speaking in the Diplomatic Reception Room, Trump presented the names of 20 additional potential nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court, which included three Republican senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Within minutes, Hawley, who won his seat in 2018, announced he was not interested in a place on the nation’s top court.

“I appreciate the president’s confidence in listing me as a potential Supreme Court nominee,” Hawley said. “But as I told the president, Missourians elected me to fight for them in the Senate, and I have no interest in the high court. I look forward to confirming constitutional conservatives.”

For his part, Cotton expressed interest in the job. “I’m honored that President Trump asked me to consider serving on the Supreme Court and I’m grateful for his confidence. I will always heed the call of service to our nation,” Cotton said in a statement. “The Supreme Court could use some more justices who understand the difference between applying the law and making the law, which the Court does when it invents a right to an abortion, infringes on religious freedom, and erodes the Second Amendment.”

Later Cruz tweeted he was “humbled & deeply honored to be on President Trump’s SCOTUS list, released today” along with a link to his new book, “One Vote Away: How a Single Supreme Court Seat Can Change History.”

VanDyke, 47, graduated from Harvard Law School, was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown. He has the rare distinction of having served as solicitor general for two states, Montana and Nevada, where he served under then-GOP Attorney General Adam Laxalt. VanDyke was confirmed to the 9th Circuit in December.

“It is so important to get representation from the American West on the high Court,” Laxalt said in a statement responding to the release of Trump’s list. “Judge VanDyke, a proven defender of the Constitution, is a small town guy whose intellect and experience as a state Solicitor General make him a tremendous candidate for the United States Supreme Court. I am grateful to President Trump for adding him to the short list.”

Trump did not consult with Nevada’s two Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez-Masto and Jacky Rosen, about the pick, and they opposed VanDyke’s confirmation, which passed the Senate on a party-line vote.

VanDyke broke down in tears as Democrats questioned him about the “not qualified” rating issued by the American Bar Association on the eve of what became a contentious confirmation hearing.

But Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, told the Review-Journal, “Lawrence VanDyke was a classmate of mine at Harvard Law School, and you couldn’t ask for a better lawyer or a man of more exemplary character.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.