President Donald Trump will announce his choice for the next Associate Justice to be appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States on Monday, July 9 at 9:00 p.m. EDT in a prime time address. From that moment, the nominee will be subjected to increasingly dangerous trials featuring dragons and mazes of questions. It brought to mind a book from my son’s childhood. The book was absolutely terrifying. The book was called “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.

For those of you Muggles who may not be fans of the “Harry Potter” books, here is a synopsis from “Fandango” for the fourth book in the series “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”:

Harry Potter is chosen along with three other wizards by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the dangerous Tri-Wizard tournament. Harry’s schoolmates are suspicious of the Goblet’s choice, however, as the tournament usually involves seventh-year students, and Harry is only in his fourth. With his best friends not on speaking terms, the possible return of Voldemort, and a crush on lovely Cho Chang, Harry has enough trouble navigating the murkey waters of adolescence much less competing in the tournament.

How treacherous is the Tri-Wizard tournament?

The Triwizard Tournament consists of a series of tasks designed to test the champions in many different ways: their magical prowess, their daring, their powers of deduction, and their ability to cope with danger. Cheating was also considered a normal, traditional part of the Tournament.

So, vicious are the challenges set up by the practitioners of the “Dark Arts” aka Senate Democrats that nominations have been killed and badly wounded. From the fatal lancing of the nomination of Robert Bork gave us a new term for being screwed in public “Borked”. The badly damaged nomination of Justice Clarence Thomas gave us the phrase “high tech lynching”.

The Senate practitioners of the Dark Arts have only gotten craftier and darker in their Satanic magic. The dragons have only stoked their fires hotter.

That nastiest of fire breathing dragons, Senator Dianne Feinstein has used religion to bash potential SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett:

“The dogma lives loudly in you” sounds similar to another a line from another allegorical genre “Star Wars”. The line of course is, “The force is strong with this one.” Senator Feinstein should be very careful before raising her wand against Coney Barrett again.

The WhiteHouse.gov provided a list of potential Supreme Court nominees back in November, 2017. The list doesn’t seem to have changed much except that Neil Gorsuch is now an associate justice having outperformed the Wizards of the Dark Arts in the Senate. The list is as follows:

Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Keith Blackwell of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia

Charles Canady of Florida, Supreme Court of Florida

Steven Colloton of Iowa, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Allison Eid of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Britt Grant of Georgia, Supreme Court of Georgia

Raymond Gruender of Missouri, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Joan Larsen of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Mike Lee of Utah, United States Senator

Thomas Lee of Utah, Supreme Court of Utah

Edward Mansfield of Iowa, Supreme Court of Iowa

Federico Moreno of Florida, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida

Kevin Newsom of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

William Pryor of Alabama, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Margaret Ryan of Virginia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces

David Stras of Minnesota, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

Diane Sykes of Wisconsin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Amul Thapar of Kentucky, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Timothy Tymkovich of Colorado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Robert Young of Michigan, Supreme Court of Michigan (Ret.)

Don Willett of Texas, Supreme Court of Texas

Patrick Wyrick of Oklahoma, Supreme Court of Oklahoma

All of the above are worthy competitors for the SCOTUS tournament of champions. They should be sharpening their wands and practicing their Protective Spells and Enchantments. On Monday night, the Goblet of Fire will produce the name of the newest champion. This fall one of them will face the Dark Lords of the U.S. Senate. Only the strong of heart and most learned wizard will survive.