The stakes for the 2020 election – if they weren’t high enough already – were just exponentially raised with the death of Justice Ginsburg.

An empty SCOTUS seat could potentially energize this race in a way we haven’t seen before, but if President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have their way, it might be a moot point. McConnell has already announced his intentions to get a candidate moving, and President Trump is right there with him.

.@GOP We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices. We have this obligation, without delay!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2020

While liberals shriek about “the McConnell rule,” conveniently forgetting that the reason McConnell would not advance President Obama’s pick is because the White House and the Senate were controlled by opposite parties, which none other than Joe Biden himself also agreed with, President Trump already released a second list of potential SCOTUS picks just a little over a week ago. I’m sure that he never expected that it would become a hot talking point in ten days’ time.

Now that the theoretical has become the real, that list is quickly being narrowed down in the media. Everyone remembers – and carries scars from – the brutality and viciousness of the Kavanaugh confirmation battle. I am making a guess, and it might be a good one, that between Ginsburg being replaced on the court, and what happened to Justice Kavanaugh, that the next pick that President Trump makes will be a woman.

And given the list of superbly qualified women on his list, it will be easy to choose a very good candidate for the court. The problem becomes choosing only ONE candidate for SCOTUS.

The prominent names on the president’s potential SCOTUS picks that are women include names that have come up before, like Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Britt Grant of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Joan Larsen of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Other names that are now being added to that list are Judge Allison Eid of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Out of these five names, Judge Lagoa’s name is drawing some quick and early interest, especially because the New York Times is now reporting that President Trump’s short list contains only three names – Amy Coney Barrett, Amul Thapar (who is on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, and he would be the first Indian American on the court), and Barbara Lagoa.

2. Geography aside, Lagoa also has some demographic advantages: she's a Cuban-American from Miami (Hialeah), a crucial voting bloc for Trump.

Source: "How do Democrats in the Senate vote against a Latina?”
2nd source: “Lagoa is at the top of the list. She checks a lot of boxes.”

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) September 19, 2020

Judge Lagoa’s biography is an impressive one, which includes Columbia Law School and time on the Florida Supreme Court. Her Cuban-American heritage would make her an excellent counterpoint to Justice Sotomayor. She has only been on the 11th Circuit bench for less than a year, though. Is she ready to make that jump?

Judge Barrett’s biography has been more well-known and examined because her name has been on the list for a longer period of time. Barrett is a former Scalia law clerk, on the faculty of Notre Dame Law School, and is seen as a favorite pick.

Judge Thupar, who is a reported protégé of Mitch McConnell, is from Kentucky and the son of Indian immigrants. He has been on the 6th Circuit court since 2017, which isn’t a lot of time, but more than Judge Lagoa has had.

Most importantly, Judge Barrett is 48. Judge Lagoa is 52. Judge Thapar is 51. Any of them would be younger than Gorsuch and Kavanaugh right now by just a few years. Judge Ginsburg was 60 when she was made a SCOTUS justice, and served 27 years. In putting younger judges on the list, President Trump is looking at the long game of the Supreme Court.

Be sure that any choice is going to be torn to shreds by the Democrats, the hard left, and the press (but I repeat myself). The question is which of these top three candidates wants to be on the Supreme Court badly enough to have their entire life turned upside down in rapid fashion. And if they decline, which name then moves up on the list?

I don’t think we can be reminded to brace ourselves for the onslaught to come often enough.

Featured image via Pixabay, cropped, Pixabay license