Minnesota and the Supremes: a field guide

Updated: 7:30 a.m. | Posted: 4 a.m.

President Donald Trump intends to announce his nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court in a prime-time event Monday at the White House.

If confirmed, the new justice is likely to push ideological makeup of the nation's highest court to the right.

While it's likely no one from Minnesota, the state boasts intriguing ties to the court and will have a voice in who's chosen for the nine-member court.

Minnesota's players

Trump's nominee heads first to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where two-term Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a member.

In an interview last week, Klobuchar said she has little expectation that Trump will nominate someone she can support.

"The names that have risen to the top have tended to be people who have a history of being ideologues," Klobuchar said, adding, "My big concern is we're going to have someone that doesn't really respect precedent."

Klobuchar said she wants the nominee to be more forthcoming about how they view past U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Judicial appointees often deflect those questions under the guise it could call their independence into doubt in future cases.

Should the nomination go to the full Senate — a strong likelihood given that Republicans command the process — both Klobuchar and fellow DFL Sen. Tina Smith will get votes.

Smith, who wasn't in the Senate to vote on Trump's first Supreme Court nominee in 2017, said she has "grave, grave doubts" that the new justice will leave prior rulings on abortion and health care coverage undisturbed.

"The American people are owed nothing less than a clear understanding about how these potential Supreme Court justices feel about important precedents, such as Roe v. Wade," Smith said in an interview Friday.

Smith said she looks forward to meeting with the person he appoints but she isn't inclined to back a nominee off Trump's list of finalists, which conservative groups helped assemble.

North Star Supremes?

Don't bet on a hometown pick.

Recently confirmed U.S. Court of Appeals Judge David Stras is among the 25 jurists whom Trump has listed as potential nominees.

But there is little indication that Stras, a former Minnesota Supreme Court justice, has been seriously considered for this upcoming vacancy.

It's been almost 24 years since the high court had a justice with a strong Minnesota tie.

Only two justices in history listed Minnesota as their residence at the time of nomination: Pierce Butler in 1923 and Harry Blackmun in 1970. Blackmun left the court in 1994 and died five years later.

But Warren Burger, who was chief justice from 1969 to 1986, was born in St. Paul and attended law school there before moving to Virginia while working at the Justice Department.

Burger and Blackmun, while serving on the court together, were often regarded as the "Minnesota twins" because of their home state connection and early commonality of voting in cases.

As time wore on, Blackmun split with Burger on more cases and sided with the court's liberals more often.

Possible nominee's key link to Minnesota

The reported finalists for the positions are all sitting appeals court judges: Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Raymond Kethledge and Thomas Hardiman.

A 2008 speech Kavanaugh made in Minnesota, which he later adapted for a Minnesota Law Review article, could draw considerable attention if he's Trump's choice.

Kavanaugh, a judge on the Court of Appeal's D.C. Circuit, offered provocative views on the separation of powers and, more pertinently, accountability for sitting presidents.

He advocated for shielding presidents from civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions as well as investigations while in office, writing that presidents "should be excused from some of the burdens of ordinary citizenship while serving in office."

Kavanaugh argued that presidents shouldn't be subject to questioning by prosecutors.

"Like civil suits, criminal investigations take the president's focus away from his or her responsibilities to the people. And a president who is concerned about an ongoing criminal investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as president," he wrote.

Instead, Kavanaugh said bad-behaving presidents can be held to account by other means. He wrote: "If the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available."

Correction (July 5, 2018): An earlier version of this story misstated the number of justices on the court. The story has been updated.