*By Christian Smith*
No matter which judge President Donald Trump chooses from his Supreme Court shortlist, they will all have a similar impact on America's highest court, says UC-Irvine law professor Rick Hasen.
"They're all very conservative," Hasen said of federal judges Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge, and Amy Coney Barrett, whose names are [most often cited](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/schumer-urges-trump-to-tap-merrick-garland-for-supreme-court/2018/07/05/ca12f0be-805e-11e8-b0ef-fffcabeff946_story.html?utm_term=.f37ee02ac02c) as being at the top of the president's list to fill the seat being vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
"They're all likely to be on the same side on issues involving abortion, on issues involving voting rights, on issues involving affirmative action. The kinds of things where Justice Kennedy was the swing justice, all three of these are likely to be pretty much the same."
Judging from the comments of TV pundits and news reporters, the betting seems strong that Trump will wind up choosing Judge Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge who sits on the District of Columbia circuit. Hasen says picking Kavanaugh would make sense because "he's very much like Neil Gorsuch," Trump's first Supreme Court nominee, who, like Kavanaugh, also has "very well respected Ivy League pedigree."
The eventual nominee will only need 50 votes to be confirmed, thanks to rules adopted by Senate leadership in 2017. Vice President Mike Pence would serve as the tiebreaker if the votes are split.
Two Senators who could make or break any of these nominees' chances are Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Both are pro-choice Republicans, which means the question of overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case establishing a woman's right to have an abortion, will likely take center stage in the confirmation hearing process.
President Trump is expected to announce his nominee in a prime-time ceremony Monday night.
For the full segment [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/president-trumps-supreme-court-shortlist-gets-shorter)
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
It is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned a wave of “cruel” and “callous” state legislation curbing the rights, visibility and health care access of LGBTQ+ people, while causing the community to feel under attack for being who they are.
Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.
Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog" and arguing that he's the only one who can stop him.
Saying gender identity is real, a federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.
