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Tags: donald trump | supreme court | appointments

Trump Could Appoint Most High Court Justices in Decades

By    |   Thursday, 02 January 2025 09:39 AM EST

President-elect Donald Trump might be able to increase his number of Supreme Court appointments to five if Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. retire during his second term – the most by any president in more than 60 years.

The Washington Times reported Tuesday that Trump began drafting a list of potential Supreme Court nominees during his presidential campaign last year to prepare for potential vacancies on the high court should he win another term.

"I'm going to be putting together a list of judges — great judges — a list of about 20," Trump told the Times last year. "I think it's important to reveal who your Supreme Court justices will be."

Trump nominated three justices during his first term and could nominate two more should conservatives Thomas and Alito step down.

Thomas, 76, has served on the Supreme Court for 33 years, having been appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Alito, 74, has served on the court for 18 years and was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006.

It appears unlikely that the high court's 6-3 conservative majority would be altered by Thomas and Alito's successors.

"If Justices Thomas and Alito retire while Trump is president, their replacements are likely to share their views, so I doubt the court's jurisprudence would change much," Stuart Banner, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the Times.

Some who follow the court note that Thomas and Alito have more consistent conservative records than Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who were appointed during Trump's first administration.

"Most researchers would agree that Trump's three picks to the court are more moderate conservative votes than Alito or Thomas, and I'd guess that there is a lot of pressure from hardline conservatives to pick nominees with a more aggressive conservative voting record," Adam Feldman, Supreme Court scholar and creator of the Empirical SCOTUS blog, told the Times in an email.

"Trump's relationship with the Federalist Society and the Society's impact on his nominees will likely play a large role on his candidates. Ultimately, if Alito or Thomas retire, the bigger impact will be longevity on the court. It is unlikely he can find any nominees that are more conservative."

The last president to appoint five Supreme Court justices was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served consecutive terms from 1953 to 1961.

Nicole Weatherholtz

Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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President-elect Donald Trump might be able to increase his number of Supreme Court appointments to five if Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. retire during his second term — the most by any president in more than 60 years.
donald trump, supreme court, appointments
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2025-39-02
Thursday, 02 January 2025 09:39 AM
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