Matthew Wilson writes for National Review about J.D. Vance’s potential impact on Supreme Court nominations in a new Trump administration.
Should Donald Trump be elected president, one area in which a Vice President Vance seems very likely to have an outsized impact is in the administration’s selection of a nominee to fill a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy (of which, under a second Trump term, there would almost certainly be at least one).
Trump, unlike in 2016 and 2020, has not yet released a list of jurists whom he would consider appointing to the high court. While his decision to hold off on releasing a formal list has caused consternation among some conservatives, there are only about a dozen contenders who would have a realistic chance of securing a nomination. Fox News published a concise summary of most of the potential nominees last month (while, it should be noted, relaying comments from sources close to Trump that a judges list would be forthcoming). Of the excellent Supreme Court candidates mentioned in the Fox report, Vance’s vice-presidential nomination makes his connections to one immediately stand out: Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Thapar, who served as a federal district judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky for nine years before Trump elevated him to the appeals court in 2017, also happens to be the former boss of Vance’s wife. Usha Chilukuri Vance, until recently a litigator at Munger, Tolles, & Olson, worked for one year as a law clerk to Thapar when he sat on the trial court. She went on to complete clerkships for then–D.C. circuit judge Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, two incredibly prestigious professional accomplishments that her clerkship with Thapar no doubt assisted her in obtaining. The Vance family now lives in Cincinnati — a short drive across the Ohio River from Thapar’s chambers in Covington, Ky.
