Since it overturned his IEEPA tariffs in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, Donald Trump has clearly had the Supreme Court on his mind. In addition to complaining about “his” justices voting against him even when they “knew where [he] stood, how badly [he] wanted this Victory for our Country,” Trump set off significant speculation when he discussed potentially nominating three more justices. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas have both said that they have no plans to retire (though the prospect of an Alito memoir later this year calls his intentions into question), but that has not stopped aspiring MAGA justices and their supporters from jockeying for position and auditioning for the boss.
While this response is unsurprising, the conversation surrounding it has revealed a significant shift in Republican views of prospective nominees. The conservative legal movement finally caught the car in Trump’s first term and secured a supermajority of right-wing justices willing to impose their vision on the country. But under Trump, the movement has so thoroughly radicalized itself that even solid conservatives like Justice Amy Coney Barrett supposedly can’t be trusted. Conservatives’ refrain for decades had been “no more Souters,” referring to Justice David Souter, a George H.W. Bush appointee who drifted leftward after joining the court. Now, even though they voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, gut the Voting Rights Act, kill the administrative state, and many more longtime conservative goals, the call has shifted to “No more Souters. No more Robertses. No more Barretts.”
