Supreme Court nominations and the issues before the Court have played an important role in most recent presidential elections. This was especially true in 2016, when Donald Trump's list of potential Supreme Court nominees, paired with a vacancy on the Court, is widely credited with being a decisive factor in Trump's victory. In this virtual panel, experts on judicial nominations and the federal courts will share their views on the role the Court will play in this year's presidential election. Among the many questions they'll tackle are whether the Supreme Court issue will work in President Trump's favor again and whether Joe Biden is likely to release a list of potential nominees, as well as some novel questions brought about by COVID-19's impact on the Court's calendar and its generation of voting disputes that the Justices may address this fall.
Panelists:
Curt Levey
President, The Committee for Justice
Curt Levey is President of the Committee for Justice and is a veteran of Supreme Court confirmation battles. After graduating Harvard Law School with honors and clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Mr. Levey served as Director of Legal & Public Affairs at the Center for Individual Rights. There he worked on landmark Supreme Court cases, including the University of Michigan affirmative action cases and the successful constitutional challenge to the Violence Against Women Act. After CIR, Levey headed the Title IX policy group at the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Levey is also a long-time member of the Federalist Society's civil rights executive committee. Before attending law school, Mr. Levey earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science from Brown University and worked in the field of artificial intelligence. He invented a new type of AI technology, for which he wrote a successful patent application.
Carrie Severino
President, Judicial Crisis Network
Carrie Campbell Severino is the President of the Judicial Crisis Network and co-author with Mollie Hemingway of the bestselling book “Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court.” As an expert on the confirmation process, Mrs. Severino has been extensively quoted in the media and regularly appears on television, including MSNBC, FOX, CNN, C-SPAN and ABC’s This Week. During the Kavanaugh confirmation alone she logged 104 TV appearances, in addition to doing extensive radio and print media. Severino writes and speaks on a wide range of judicial issues, including the constitutional limits on government, the federal nomination process, and state judicial selection. She has testified before Congress on constitutional questions and briefed Senators on judicial nominations, and regularly files briefs in high-profile Supreme Court cases. She was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and to Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Michael Thielen
Executive Director, Republican National Lawyers Association
Michael Thielen has served as the Republican National Lawyers Association’s Executive Director since 2000. He graduated from the University of California Los Angeles and Pepperdine School of Law. Michael worked previously for the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Judicial Watch. He has been actively involved in the judicial confirmation fight since 2001. He has been quoted in a wide range of conservative publications including the Wall Street Journal and Washington Times. He is a frequent contributor to the Daily Caller. The RNLA's Twitter, blog and Facebook account primarily focus on judges and election law.
Moderator:
Ashley Baker
Director of Public Policy, The Committee for Justice