President-elect Donald Trump has a pretty sizable to-do list for his first 100 days in office: repeal and (presumably) replace Obamacare. Label China a currency manipulator.  Suspend immigration from countries with a history of Islamic extremism. But the task on Trump’s agenda that has many conservatives chomping at the bit, and liberals bracing for impact, is appointing the ninth member of the Supreme Court.

Replacing Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last February, has been a tumultuous and highly political spectacle, as Senate Republicans refused a hearing for President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. They won that gamble, and now Trump has the opportunity to shape the ideological makeup of the court for generations. Below is a primer on five of the nominees on Trump’s shortlist.

William Pryor

Pryor, 54, currently sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals; George W. Bush appointed him to the federal court in 2004. Pryor attended Northeast Louisiana University for his undergraduate studies, followed by the Tulane University School of Law. While Pryor certainly is a conservative–he staunchly opposes abortion, and compared gay sex to “polygamy, incest, paedophilia, prostitution, and adultery”–he also opposes anti-trans discrimination. In a 2011 case, Pryor supported the opinion that anti-trans discrimination is equal to sex discrimination.

Judge William Pryor has called the Roe v. Wade decision “the worst abomination of constitutional law.” pic.twitter.com/qsbTJqSWsJ

— Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) January 3, 2017

Mike Lee

Lee, a Republican Senator from Utah, has never served as a judge. But he has practiced law, and has been a clerk, twice, for now-Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. Lee, 45, did not support Trump in the primary campaign (he is close friends with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who also ran for the Republican nomination), but is still being considered to serve on the nation’s highest court. Lee serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As senator, Lee voted for a bill that proposed to complete a section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence. He also strongly opposes Obamacare, and is pretty far-right on social issues, including same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

Majority of Utahns would support Sen. Mike Lee if nominated to US Supreme Court, poll shows. https://t.co/aOLvuoINHR @SenMikeLee pic.twitter.com/tJkETEhoUG

— KSL (@KSLcom) January 5, 2017

Steve Colloton

Unlike many of the other names on Trump’s shortlist, Colloton, a 54-year-old Iowa City native, is a product of an Ivy League law school; he graduated from Yale Law School in 1988. George W. Bush appointed Colloton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in 2003. He has written or supported a number of opinions that put him pretty far-right of center, including one case where he supported companies that refuse free contraception for employees for religious reasons.

A #SupremeCourt Pick in the Mold of #Scalia https://t.co/BR2wTMNrmP via @LifeZette #SteveColloton #SCOTUS #MAGA #ForcesOfLight

— Shelle (@MichellyLaBelly) December 16, 2016

Diane Sykes

Sykes, a self-described “originalist-textualist,” worked as a justice on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004, when George W. Bush appointed her to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In her more than two-decade career as a judge, Sykes has staked out a number of far-right positions on the ideological spectrum.

She ruled that companies have the right to abstain from the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. She also sided with a religious group at Southern Illinois University’s School of Law that did not allow gay people to join its ranks. The dean said the group violated the school’s nondiscrimination policies. The group said the dean was infringing on their First Amendment rights. Sykes agreed with the group.

Who is Diane Sykes, possible Trump Supreme Court nominee? https://t.co/8EKpF5RBCp pic.twitter.com/RF3to3K5OB

— Michele Gorman (@mrich1201) December 16, 2016

Joan Larsen

Larsen boasts an experience that nobody else on Trump’s list can: she clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Judge Antonin Scalia, whose seat she is now vying to fill, from 1994 to 1995. Some conservatives consider her a long shot for the position, largely due to her relative lack of experience serving on a bench; Larsen has spent most of her career as a law professor at the University of Michigan. In September 2015, Gov. Rick Snyder (R-MI) named Larsen, 48, to the Michigan Supreme Court to fill a seat left vacant by a departing judge. She won re-election by a landslide last November.

Trump #SCOTUS Short Lister Joan Larsen Is Fast-Rising Star #SCOTUSnominee | Bloomberg BNA https://t.co/Hd1w9HQeXp pic.twitter.com/DGJPhhc7R9

— Patrick Gregory (@PatrickGregry) December 3, 2016

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Who Will Trump Nominate to the Supreme Court? appeared first on Law Street.

Today the Supreme Court handed down an historic ruling on marriage, striking down state laws that ban same-sex marriage. Always one to out-do himself, Justice Scalia delivered a dissenting opinion of immense rhetorical heft, perhaps even better than his Obamacare dissent. Here are the highlights:

10. “The stuff contained in today’s opinion has to diminish this Court’s reputation for clear thinking and sober analysis.”

Hey, Ginsburg was drunk at ONE State of the Union, don’t hold it against her.

9. “Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court.”

No, I’m pretty sure this guy still rules everything that the light touches.

8. “Hubris is sometimes defined as o’erweening pride; and pride, we know, goeth before the fall.”

Hey, as long as you fall with style, it’s all good.

7. “The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic.”

Good thing Scalia’s got his glasses on.

6. “But what really astounds is the hubris reflected in today’s judicial Putsch.”

Putsch. noun \ˈpu̇ch\ :  a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government.

Is Ginsburg the Mockingjay?

5. “Buried beneath the mummeries and straining-to-be-memorable passages…”

Yikes. I hope they have some ice at the Supreme Court

4. Referring to the makeup of the Supreme Court: “Not a single South-westerner or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner (California does not count).”

You’re not even real California, just get over it!

3. “…but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that the happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say.”

Scalia’s wife may have some words for him when he gets home today.

2. “The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me.”

I don’t think he found any.

1. “Ask the nearest hippie?”

Upon inquiry, the hippie responded, “Who’s Antonin Scalia?”

Bonus:  (Huh? How can a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives [whatever that means] define [whatever that means] an urgent liberty [never mind], give birth to a right?)

Takeway of the day: Scalia is very confused. And those brackets certainly aren’t helping.

To read more Scalia fun, make sure to check out the Top 10 Most Creative Quotes from Antonin Scalia’s Obamacare Dissent.

Maurin Mwombela

Maurin Mwombela is a member of the University of Pennsylvania class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer 2015. He now blogs for Law Street, focusing on politics. Contact Maurin at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Top 10 Most Creative Quotes From Antonin Scalia’s Marriage Equality Dissent appeared first on Law Street.

Today the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold important provisions of the Affordable Care Act. But in his strongly worded dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia used some of the most creative and entertaining language in Supreme Court history. Here are the top 10 funniest quotes from the dissent:

10. “The Court’s insistence on making a choice that should be made by Congress both aggrandizes judicial power and encourages congressional lassitude.”

I absolutely agree. Not to mention the vociferous remonstrance the Court will face after their incongruous conjecture.

9. “Words no longer have meaning.”

Finally, we can all throw away our dictionaries.

8. “Could anyone maintain with a straight face that §36B is unclear?”

Sorry, I tried my best, but I couldn’t

7. “What are the odds, do you think, that the same slip of the pen occurred in seven separate places?”

Well if we take the number of words written in the bill at 381, 517 and multiply that by the chances of a writing error at 1 in 1000 words, but account for the flux of the earth’s gravitational field using Gauss’s theorem as it pertains to the Capitol Building, then the chances are 1 in 999, BUT multiplying by the chance of it occurring in the exact places where the issue is mentioned using a factorial… it’s not very likely.

6.”We should start calling this law SCOTUScare.”

It does have a nice ring to it, but I don’t know how Obama would feel about that.

5 “Understatement, thy name is an opinion on the Affordable Care Act!” Later, “Impossible possibility, thy name is an opinion on the Affordable Care Act!” (tie)

Rhetorical mastery, thy name is Justice Scalia

4. “A sense of belt-and-suspenders caution.”

I hope the Court isn’t ruling on any fashion issues anytime soon.

3. “The Secretary of Health and Human Services is not a State.” Later, “Because the Secretary is neither one of the 50 States nor the District of Columbia.” (tie)

image courtesy of Gage via Wikipedia

Image Cortesy of Carol Norquist via Flickr

I don’t know. I’m definitely seeing some resemblance here.

2. “Pure Applesauce”

Really, just for me!? No additives or anything!?

1. “The Court’s next bit of interpretive jiggery-pokery…”

It’s jiggery-POkery, not jiggery-poKERY

Bonus Quote:

“Imagine that a university sends around a bulletin reminding every professor to take the ‘interests of graduate students’ into account when setting office hours, but that some professors teach only undergraduates. Would anybody reason that the bulletin implicitly presupposes that every professor has ‘graduate students,’ so that ‘graduate students’ must really mean ‘graduate or undergraduate students’? Surely not.”

Besides how random this reference is, of course not. Professors don’t care about undergraduates.

Maurin Mwombela

Maurin Mwombela is a member of the University of Pennsylvania class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer 2015. He now blogs for Law Street, focusing on politics. Contact Maurin at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Top 10 Most Creative Quotes from Antonin Scalia’s Obamacare Dissent appeared first on Law Street.