WASHINGTON, D.C. —  President Trump is expected to finalize his list of picks for Supreme Court justices in “the coming days,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Tuesday. 

What You Need To Know

  • White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters President Trump will release a list of Supreme Court picks in "the coming days"

  • President Trump had previously promised to release a list by September 1

  • Joe Biden pledged to elect the first Black woman to the Supreme Court if he is elected president earlier this year

“We’ve been working very closely, the president has, with the White House general counsel, getting input from a number of others,” Meadows said. “I’m excited about the list and the president will be signing off on that in the coming days.” 

When asked why there had been delays in the nomination process, Meadows responded that there were “a whole lot of other priorities that we’ve been working on.” 

In June, Trump tweeted that he would announce a list of Supreme Court picks by September 1—any subsequent nomination to the court would come from this list, he added.

Trump’s self-imposed September deadline came after the Supreme Court blocked his attempt to roll back Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections in June. DACA is an Obama-era program that allows children who were brought to the U.S. illegally to stay in the country legally, attend college, work, and get a driver's license.

There are almost 700,000 immigrants in the program.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with liberal judges.

Trump blasted the ruling on Twitter, calling the "politically charged" decisions regarding DACA and a previous decision on job discrimination against the LGBTQ community "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives."

 

But the September deadline came and went with no Supreme Court picks announced. 

Still, President Trump’s judicial appointees are one of his administration’s most significant accomplishments: Over 200 federal judges nominated by Trump have been confirmed by the Senate since he took office. 

Both of the president’s Supreme Court appointees – Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – were on similar lists that Trump first shared during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, announced in February that he would elect the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court should he be elected President. 

“As president, I’d be honored, honored to appoint the first African American woman. Because it should look like the country. It’s long past time,” Biden said at the time. 

More recently, Biden claimed to have made a shortlist of qualified candidates. 

“We are putting together a list of a group of African American women who are qualified and have the experience to be on the court,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del., in late June. “I am not going to release that until we go further down the line in vetting them, as well.”