The inclusion of Judge Raymond Kethledge on President Donald Trump’s shortlist to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has some in conservative circles worried history may be repeating itself, Breitbart News has learned.
The Washington Post reported [1]Monday that Kethledge, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, met with the president along with fellow potential nominees Judge Amul Thapar, also of the Sixth Circuit; Judge Amy Barrett of the Seventh Circuit, and Judge Brett Kavenaugh. of the D.C. Circuit. Kethledge graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, worked for Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI), and was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.
As President Trump moves quickly towards his decision on his nomination to replace Justice Kennedy, some commentators on the legal right are anxious to avoid the mistakes of the past. No one with whom Breitbart News spoke suggested that Kethledge is a “closet liberal” like the notorious selections by previous Republican administrations of Justices Earl Warren, John Paul Stevens, and David Souter. Among some, however, there was an implication he could fit the mold of justices like Kennedy himself, who have, once confirmed to the Supreme Court, ruled further to the left than it was thought they would as they took their lifetime appointments.
Kennedy, for whom Kethledge clerked, was President Ronald Reagan’s final Supreme Court appointment, getting his nomination after Senate Democrats torpedoed his first two picks for the spot, Judge Robert Bork and Judge Douglas Ginsburg. Like Kethledge, Kennedy came with strong conservative bona fides. He moved in Reaganite circles dating back to the 40th president’s days as California governor and was selected at the personal recommendation of then-Attorney General Edwin Meese, among the most prominent leaders of legal
