2020 Dems Mum on Secret List of Judicial Nominees

From Real Clear Politics.com (June 14):

In 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump took the unusual step of pledging to choose his Supreme Court nominees from a list vetted and compiled by Leonard Leo, an outside adviser to Trump on the courts while on leave from the Federalist Society, and the Heritage Foundation.

That step provided Republicans wary of how Trump would govern with reassurance that their vote for him would have a substantial impact on the high court and tilt it to the right. The move was risky and unprecedented, but 2016 Election Day exit polls showed it paid off, with one out of every five voters saying that the makeup of Supreme Court was their top issue. Trump ended up winning 57% of those voters.

Liberal judicial activist groups announced earlier this week that they are working on a similar effort -- compiling a list of progressive judges who would fill the courts if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020. Building the Bench, an initiative by the Alliance for Justice and other liberal organizations, will identify progressive judges they believe are best-suited to fill likely vacancies.

Democrats are counting on scores of lower court openings -- seats held by senior judges appointed by Presidents Obama, Clinton and Carter who are waiting out the Trump administration to retire if a Democrat wins the presidency.

……………

But unlike Trump’s transparent 2016 move, the AFJ and the other groups involved are keeping their lists of judges secret, and no Democratic presidential campaign is willing to say it would use the list to select nominees.

RealClearPolitics reached out to a dozen of these campaigns to ask whether they would commit to selecting appointees from the Building the Bench roster, but only a handful responded to repeated requests – and those responses were noncommittal. [read more]

Yea, Dems why are you secretive about your list? Hmmm. I thought the democratic party was transparent.

Another article on the subject: Why Do Democrats Have a Secret List of Supreme Court Nominees?