*By Conor White*
The race to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Supreme Court is just beginning, but a front runner has already emerged, according to Heather Timmons, Quartz's White House correspondent.
"The name you're hearing the most in Washington has been Brett Kavanaugh," she explained. "He's a U.S. District Court of Appeals judge in DC, he clerked for Kennedy. Trump made a point of saying he's consulted with Kennedy about who his replacement should be, and it's expected that Kennedy is going to recommend Kavanaugh."
Despite reportedly being a late add to the president's list of potential nominees, 53-year-old Kavanaugh checks a lot of boxes for conservatives: he represented George W. Bush in the 2000 Florida recount, was a lawyer for Ken Starr during the investigation into Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, and most recently he dissented when his court upheld an opinion requiring the government to facilitate an abortion for an undocumented teen in U.S. custody.
In an interview Thursday on Cheddar, Timmons dove even deeper into why Kavanaugh could be Trump's pick.
"He has a history of pro-business rulings, he decided a case that said the Consumer Finance Protection Board was unconstitutional, which allowed Trump to replace the head of that with Mick Mulvaney."
And while many expect President Trump to attempt to ram through a nominee with a very conservative history in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, Timmons said that might not be the best move when it comes to the midterm elections.
"Right now support across America for legal abortion in most cases is at 57%, it's as strong as it's been in 20 years. Although Trump has indicated he wants to pull this court to the right, America and American voters are not going towards the right. So to put somebody in one of these seats that is considered a very far-right person could ultimately hurt the Republicans in the midterms."
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/may-i-have-this-seat-predicting-next-supreme-court-justice)
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.
With concerns about misinformation spreading online, European Union officials want to more closely regulate artificial intelligence, and they're asking the world's biggest tech companies for help.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Mazie Hirono sent a letter to top officials at Twitter expressing their concerns over the platform's privacy policy.
