Subject: RE: SCOTUS oppo
From: "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
To: "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>, "Dillon, Lauren" <[email-masked]>, "Freundlich, Christina" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Bauer, Nick" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 May 2016 08:13:47 -0700

Daily beast was good – what did they miss here?

Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Hates Gays, Loves Police-Dog Brutality
The Donald’s picks for the nation’s most august judicial body are just as nutty as his choices for, well, everything else.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/18/donald-trump-s-supreme-court-hates-gays-loves-police-dog-brutality.html

Monica Lewinsky connections, Twitter celebrity status, relaxed views on police-dog brutality, and comparisons of gay sex to necrophilia—Donald Trump’s<http://www.thedailybeast.com/topics/donald-trump.html> list of potential Supreme Court nominees has it all.

On Wednesday afternoon, the real-estate mogul rolled out eleven names<http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/05/18/trump-releases-list-of-potential-supreme-court-nominees.html> of would-be members of the highest court in the land, and it was a veritable dream team<http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/05/18/trump-releases-list-of-potential-supreme-court-nominees.html> of conservative judiciary icons: Steven Colloton, Diana Sykes, Allison Eid, Raymond Gruender, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, Don Willett, Joan Larsen, Thomas Lee, William Pryor, and David Stras. (The list closely resembles one published<http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/30/the-next-supreme-court-justice/> in March by The Daily Signal, the news site of the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.)

The court currently has a vacancy, and President Obama has nominated Merrick Garland<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/29/why-the-merrick-garland-fight-is-good-for-democracy.html>, chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, for the spot. He is widely characterized as a middle-of-the-road, moderate justice, and a consensus candidate with whom GOPers could theoretically have made peace. The Daily Beast’s Jay Michaelson notes<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/16/merrick-garland-for-supreme-court-a-good-man-who-doesn-t-deserve-what-s-about-to-happen.html> that he is “relatively conservative on issues of criminal justice, relatively liberal on issues of administrative and constitutional law.”

Trump’s potential nominees? Not so much. One potential justice is an expert on Trump’s favorite conversation topic<http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/09/bill-clinton-s-bimbos-flock-to-team-trump.html>: the scandals of Bill Clinton. Steven Colloton, a George W. Bush<http://www.thedailybeast.com/topics/george-w-bush.html> appointee to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, got started in the world of conservative politicking when he was a lieutenant to Kenneth Starr on the independent investigation of the Clintons’ Whitewater investments. Starr found out about Bill Clinton’s sexual contact with Monica Lewinsky<http://www.thedailybeast.com/topics/monica-lewinsky.html> while that investigation was underway. The progressive group People for the American Way pointed out<http://www.pfaw.org/category/people/steven-colloton> that Colloton dissented from a ruling that a city violated the Constitution by having its police dogs to bite and hold suspects without warning.

Another name on the list is William Pryor, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Pryor was previously floated as a potential SCOTUS pick by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He is also the most likely name on the list to draw liberals’ intense ire. Democratic senator Chuck Schumer once called Pryor “ideological warrior<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/politics/a-different-timpanist.html>.” Pryor has stated that the right to have gay sex would lead down a dark path to legalizing bestiality and necrophilia. He has said that the <http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/if-republicans-get-their-wish-supreme-court-what-would-trump-or-cruz-do> government<http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/if-republicans-get-their-wish-supreme-court-what-would-trump-or-cruz-do>“should not be in the business of public education.” And he has called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history."

But it was the Trump’s inclusion of Don Willett, a justice on the Supreme Court of Texas, that drew the the lion’s share of snarky takes on Wednesday afternoon. For years, Willett has been a conservative Twitter<https://twitter.com/JusticeWillett/status/596669055286652929> icon for his oft-goofy tweets. “His humor is sometimes corny and often funny,” The New York Times reported in 2014, profiling<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/30/opinion/justice-don-willett-of-the-texas-supreme-court-lights-up-twitter.html> his Twitter feed.

And one thing he has really enjoyed doing lately is throwing shade at Donald Trump on social media. “Can’t wait till Trump rips off his face Mission Impossible-style & reveals a laughing Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” he tweeted in March, knocking Trump’s brand of conservatism.
View image on Twitter<http://twitter.com/JusticeWillett/status/718280241752510465/photo/1>
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Trump just said he would consider naming this guy to SCOTUShttp://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/05/18/trump-releases-list-of-potential-supreme-court-nominees.html …<https://t.co/6amDPQdbtE>https://twitter.com/JusticeWillett/status/610856791291916290 …<https://t.co/r7dz9mv0sz>
2:19 PM - 18 May 2016<https://twitter.com/woodruffbets/status/732998959308804096>
Trump Reveals All-White List of Potential SCOTUS Nominees<https://t.co/6amDPQdbtE>

Potential nominees to succeed Antonin Scalia.<https://t.co/6amDPQdbtE>
thedailybeast.com<https://t.co/6amDPQdbtE>

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When asked about his inclusion on Trump’s list, Willett simply told reporters that he would exercise “judicial restraint<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/05/18/us/politics/ap-us-gop-2016-trump-supreme-court-the-latest.html>” on weighing in on the matter.

From: Crystal, Andy
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 11:11 AM
To: Dillon, Lauren; Freundlich, Christina; Walker, Eric
Cc: Bauer, Nick
Subject: RE: SCOTUS oppo

There have been a couple articles written by progressive groups like Think Progress and Right Wing Watch that have outlined some of the horrible judicial opinions these judges have written in the past but I haven’t really seen much about that in the nonpartisan press. A bunch of them pretty consistently have really troublesome views on abortion, LGBT rights. Don’t really know what other angle we can take outside of a discussion on their actual extreme beliefs.

From: Dillon, Lauren
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 10:48 AM
To: Freundlich, Christina; Walker, Eric
Cc: Bauer, Nick; Crystal, Andy
Subject: RE: SCOTUS oppo

I think that makes sense

Adding Nick and Andy who have done more on their backgrounds. Anything there that hasn’t gotten great attention?

From: Freundlich, Christina
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 10:32 AM
To: Walker, Eric; Dillon, Lauren
Subject: RE: SCOTUS oppo

+ Lauren

Lauren, is there anything specific we want to pitch as of this moment?

I think one story we should try to get at least one person to write as a standalone is that Donald Trump outsourced his vetting to special interests. He said it last night on O’Reilly.

From: Walker, Eric
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 10:26 AM
To: Freundlich, Christina
Subject: SCOTUS oppo

Since we’re not blasting, what’s the plan? How can I help place?

Eric Walker
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
732-991-1489
@ericmwalker<https://twitter.com/ericmwalker>