Liberal and conservative judicial advocacy groups want Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden to show voters who he would select to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Article III Project, a conservative group dedicated to promoting President Trump’s judicial appointments, created on Monday a fictional short list of potential nominees Mr. Biden would want to fill the Supreme Court vacancy that it thinks will terrify voters.
“Vice President @JoeBiden has refused to release a list of potential Supreme Court picks. So we did it for him,” tweeted Mike Davis, Article III Project president. “And “The Biden List” will scare the hell out of American voters. #BidenShortList.”
The conservative group lists potential nominees as including liberal activist Stacey Abrams, a failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate; Pamela Karlan, a Stanford University law professor who testified to Congress in support of impeachment charges against Mr. Trump; and Judge Cornelia Pillard, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; among several others.
Several of the names on the Article III Project’s fictitious short list expected to scare voters are also on liberal group Demand Justice’s wish list for Mr. Biden to utilize in nominating a Supreme Court justice. Ms. Karlan, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and appellate lawyer Deepak Gupta are on both groups’ lists.
Prior to Justice Ginsburg’s death last week, Demand Justice Executive Director Brian Fallon called for Mr. Biden to immediately release a short list that voters could review before the November election. Mr. Fallon told C-SPAN earlier this month that his group had spoken with Mr. Biden and his campaign about the urgent need to release a list.
“The vice president has said that he’s considering it,” Mr. Fallon said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Sept. 9. “We know that he’s made a commitment to nominate the first African American woman to the bench, and we think that’s amazing. We’d love for him to go further to say some names that he’s considering.”
Shortly after Justice Ginsburg’s death Friday, Demand Justice announced it would spend $10 million advocating to keep the Supreme Court vacancy open until after Inauguration Day 2021.
On Sunday, Mr. Biden indicated he would not release a list of Supreme Court candidates anytime soon and said he thought doing so would open the potential nominees up to political pressure and personal attacks.
“It’s a game to them - a play to gin up emotions and anger,” Mr. Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia on Sunday regarding Mr. Trump’s short list.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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