Early in his campaign for the White House, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump suggested that his nominees to the Supreme Court may be unexpectedly moderate — he said that his sister Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, a left-of-center Clinton appointee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, would make a “phenomenal” justice. Speaking at a South Carolina political forum on Saturday, however, Trump disavowed any notion that his justices would bring moderation to the Court. To the contrary, Trump suggested that he would like to fill the Court will justices who literally want to erase nearly a century of American law.
At the forum, which was hosted by South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R), Trump named Justice Clarence Thomas as his favorite justice, labeling the Court’s most conservative member “very strong and consistent.” He also joined the chorus of Republicans angry that Chief Justice John Roberts twice turned aside lawsuits seeking to gut the Affordable Care Act. “Justice Roberts really let us down,” according to Trump. “What he did with Obamacare was disgraceful, and I think he did that because he wanted to be popular inside the Beltway.”