Donald J. Trump, the presumptive GOP Presidential candidate, revealed a list of 11 judges that he might nominate to succeed the late, great Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States. Here’s the list of the Trump 11: Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado, Raymond Gruender of Missouri, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas. Among these eleven judges . . .
are two that should be well-known to People of the Gun and Second Amendment advocates everywhere.
Diane Sykes (above) authored the unanimous 7th Circuit opinion in Ezell v. City of Chicago, a 2011 case holding that firing ranges are protected under the Second Amendment. The panel granted a preliminary injunction against Chicago’s ban on firing ranges in a case that was considered a big 2A win.
Thomas Hardiman wrote a lengthy and highly-reasoned dissent in Drake v. Filko, a 2013 Third Circuit case involving the New Jersey law requiring residents to make a showing of “justifiable need” to receive a license to carry a handgun in public. Hardiman would have stricken the requirement as violating of the Second Amendment. We have seen his logic emulated in U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s opinion in the recent District of Columbia “good reason” case.
So among this pack of cards there are at least two aces. The records of the other nine prospects will certainly be torn limb from limb in the months to come. Watch this space.