[h=2]Bookies overseas are already taking bets on Trump's Supreme Court pick with 53-year-old federal jurist leading the odds – but they'll accept wagers on Judge Judy and OJ judge Lance Ito too [/h]
Gamblers are placing their bets on who President Trump will pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and they are favoring front-runners with a few other off-beat names.
[h=1]Bookies overseas are already taking bets on Trump's Supreme Court pick with 53-year-old federal jurist leading the odds – but they'll accept wagers on Judge Judy and OJ judge Lance Ito too[/h]
Brett Kavanaugh, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, is the top favorite
But bookies are taking bets on off-beat choices like chef Gordon Ramsay
Justice Anthony Kennedy sent shockwaves through Washington when he announced his retirement
With Kennedy's departure, Republicans have a longed-for opportunity to tip the balance of the court
Trump will start the effort to replace Justice Kennedy 'immediately' and will pick from a list of 25 names
Gamblers are placing their bets on who President Donald Trump will pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and they are favoring front-runners with a few other off-beat names thrown in the mix. The international online gambling site Sportsbet.com.au has Brett Kavanaugh, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, as the top pick followed by Kentucky's Amul Thapar, a U.S. Court of Appeals judge for the 6th Circuit who is favored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, theWashington Examinerreports. Ninth on the list is Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who is favored by many members of the upper chamber.
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Bookies are taking bets on who Trump will name to the Supreme Court including options like Judge Judy
'This is one of the biggest decisions of the Trump Presidency and will shape the future of America for some years to come. That's reflected in the betting market where the race is considered extremely close between quite a few potential candidates,' said sportsbet.com.au's Will Byrne in a statement. Trump has a list of 25 names he said he will choose from to replace Kennedy. But gamblers threw a few long-shot, high-profile names out including, O.J. Simpson Judge Lance Ito, Judge Judy Sheindlin, and chef Gordon Ramsay. Justice Kennedy was a singular voice on the court whose votes have decided issues on abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, guns, campaign finance and voting rights. With Kennedy's departure, Republicans have a longed-for opportunity to tip the balance of the court. It has four justices picked by Democratic presidents and four picked by Republicans, so Trump's pick could shift the ideological balance toward conservatives for years to come. Possible picks being eyed for the vacant seat include a federal judge who serves alongside Trump's older sister, a Kentucky judge who is close to Mitch McConnell, a Texan with a vast Twitter following or even a junior senator from Utah. All but one of the men and women on the list to replace Justice Kennedy is a current or former judge - with the exception being Mike Lee, a junior Senator from Utah, whose older brother Thomas is also on the list. But a person familiar with the White House nomination process told Reuters there are five front-runners on Trump's list: Brett Kavanaugh, Thomas Hardiman; Raymond Kethledge; Amul Thapar, and Amy Coney Barrett. Hardiman serves alongside Trump's sister Maryanne on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Raymond Kethledge is a federal appeals court judge who clerked for Justice Kennedy. Amul Thapar, 49, is a federal appeals court judge from Kentucky who is close to McConnell; Brett Kavanaugh is a former clerk for Justice Kennedy while Amy Coney Barrett serves on the federal appeals court in Chicago.
Charles Canady, Florida; Amy Coney Barrett, Indiana; Thomas Hardiman, Pennsylvania; and Britt Grant of Georgia are all on the president's list of possible Supreme Court picks
AMY CONEY BARRETT The appellate court judge from New Orleans, born in 1972, graduated from Rhodes College and Notre Dame Law School. The 46-year-old clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 1998 and served as a law professor at her alma mater, George Washington University and the University of Virginia. She serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Indiana after being nominated by Trump last year.
THOMAS HARDIMAN Hardiman, 52, went to the University of Notre Dame as the first person in his family to go to college. He financed his law degree at the Georgetown University Law Center by driving a taxi. He became a federal district judge at 37 and was appointed to the 3rd Circuit in 2007. Hardiman has sided with jails seeking to strip-search inmates arrested for even minor offenses and has supported gun rights. He dissented in a 2013 case that upheld a New Jersey law to strengthen requirements for carrying a handgun in public. A Massachusetts native, Hardiman settled in Pittsburgh, where his wife comes from a family of prominent Democrats.
BRETT KAVANAUGH The Yale-educated appellate court judge for the District of Columbia recently wrote a dissent when his colleagues allowed an immigrant teen in U.S. custody to have an abortion. The 53-year-old Kavanaugh also clerked for Justice Kennedy. Kavanaugh served as an associate independent counsel during the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons' land deal. He was the the White House staff secretary under President George W. Bush from 2003 until 2006.
RAYMOND KETHLEDGE The federal appeals court judge from Summit, New Jersey, graduated from the University of Michigan and its law school. The 51-year-old was counsel to Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham of Michigan until 1997 and clerked for Kennedy the following year. He was nominated to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by George W. Bush in 2006.
Contenders: Brett Kavanuagh, Maryland; Allison Eid, Colorado; Raymond Kethledge, Michigan; and Joan Larsen, Michigan, are all on the president's list
AMUL THAPAR The federal appeals court judge from Kentucky is close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2006 to 2008 and was nominated to the 6th Circuit by George W. Bush in 2008. The 49-year-old is an alumnus of Boston College and the University of California, Berkeley, law school. Thapar was the first judge nominated by Trump to a district or appeals court.
DON WILLETT Willett, of Texas, has been on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since January this year. Before then, the 51-year-old had been a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas since 2006. But he is perhaps best known for his Twitter presence, where he describes himself as an 'extravagantly blessed husband & co-founder of 3 wee Willetts as well as a 'former drummer and rodeo bull rider' who is 'fluent in legalese.' His tweets - on subjects including the Dallas Cowboys, Austin barbecue, his three young children and of course, the law - led to the Texas House of Representatives naming him the state's 'Tweeter Laureate.'
MIKE LEE Mike Lee is the only person on the list who is not a judge. The 47-year-old politician, author and lawyer is the junior United States Senator from Utah. He was a private practice lawyer from 2007 to 2010 and has been the junior Senator from Utah since 2001.
THOMAS LEE Mike Lee's older brother Thomas has served on the Supreme Court of Utah since 2010. The 53-year-old was the Deputy Assistant Attorney General under George W. Bush from 2004 until 2005.
Contenders: Edward Mansfield, Iowa; Mike Lee, Utah; Thomas Lee, Utah (Mike Lee's brother); and Federico Moreno, Florida, are all on President Trump's list
WILLIAM PRYOR JR. The federal appeals court judge from Mobile, Alabama, is also a former attorney general of the state and an alumnus of Northeast Louisiana University and Tulane University law school. In 2003, the 56-year-old called for the removal of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from a judicial building. Trump backed Moore in a Senate race last year despite charges of sexual misconduct with young women. Moore lost the race. President George W. Bush nominated Pryor to the federal appellate court in 2004. President Barack Obama named him to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2013.
ALLISON EID The 53-year-old serves on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Colorado and previously served as a Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. She was the Solicitor General of Colorado from 2005 until 2006. She was nominated to the 10th Circuit last year by Trump, taking Neil Gorsuch's seat.
BRITT GRANT Britt Grant has been an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia since January last year. The 40-year-old was previously the Solicitor General of Georgia, serving from 2015 until her appointment to the Georgia Supreme Court. She is currently waiting on a Senate vote to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after being nominated by Trump.
RAYMOND GRUENDER The 54-year-old, of Missouri, serves on 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 2001 until 2004, when he was nominated to the 8th Circuit by George W. Bush.
Contenders: Diane Sykes, Wisconsin; William Pryor, Alabama; Kevin Newsom, Alabama; and David Stras, Minnesota, are all on President Trump's list
DAVID STRAS Stras, of Minnesota, serves on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals The 43-year-old was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 2010 until earlier this year. Stras was nominated to the 8th Circuit by Trump last year and assumed office in January. His grandmother, from Hungary, and his grandfather, from Germany, are both Holocaust survivors. 'I've taken a special interest, both on the personal side and even on the professional side when I was a law professor, in some of the issues surrounding Holocaust survivors,' Stras told the American Jewish World in 2012. He earned his BA from the University of Kansas in Lawrence in 1995 before getting an M.B.A. and law degree from the same college in 1999.
KEITH BLACKWELL The 42-year-old has been an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of George since June 2012. Before that, he was a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals.
CHARLES CANADY The 64-year-old has served on the Supreme Court of Florida since 2008. He was a Republican Congressman from 1992 until 2000. He was a judge on the Florida Second District Court of Appeal from 2002 to 2008 and a Republican member of the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2001.
STEVEN COLLOTON Colloton, of Iowa, serves on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 55-year-old was an associate in the office of Ken Starr, the independent counsel appointed to continue the Whitewater investigation during Bill Clinton's presidency. He was nominated to the appeals court by George W. Bush in 2003.
JOAN LARSEN The 49-year-old, from Michigan, serves on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before that, she was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan from 2015 until last year. She was nominated to the 6th Circuit by Trump in November 2017.
Contenders: Amul Thapar, Kentucky; Timothy Tymkovich, Colorado; Keith Blackwell, Georgia; and Steven Colloton, Iowa, are all on President Trump's list
FEDERICO MORENO Moreno, of Florida, is a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The 66-year-old, who was born in Venezuela, was nominated to the federal bench by George H. W. Bush in 1990 after serving on the 11th Judicial CIrcuit Court in Florida. He was nominated to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by George H. W. Bush but the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee didn't take up the nominate before Bush's presidency ended. President Bill Clinton chose not to renominate Moreno to the seat after he took office and ultimately appointed Rosemary Barkett to the seat.
MARGARET RYAN Ryan, of Virginia, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. The 54-year-old was a judge advocate for the U.S. Marine Corps from 1995 until 1999. She was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces by George W. Bush in 2006.
DIANE SYKES Sykes, of Wisconsin, is a judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 60-year-old was an Associated Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin from 1990 until 2004. She was nominated to the 7th Circuit by George W. Bush in 2004.
PATRICK WYRICK Wyrick serves on the Supreme Court of Oklahoma. At 37, he is the youngest person on Trump's list. Before his appointment to Oklahoma's Supreme Court, he was the Solicitor General of Oklahoma. He is awaiting a Senate vote after Trump nominated him to the federal bench for the Western District of Oklahoma this year.
Contenders: Raymond Gruender, Missouri; Robert Young, Michigan; Don Willett, Texas; and Patrick Wyrick, Oklahoma, are all on President Trump's list
TIMOTHY TYMKOVICH Tymkovich, of Colorado, is on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 61-year-old was the Solicitor General of Colorado from 1991 until 1996. He was nominated to the 10th Circuit by George W. Bush in 2003.
ROBERT YOUNG Young, of Michigan, is a former Justice the Supreme Court of Michigan. He retired last year. He was a Michigan Court of Appeals judge from 1995 until 1998 before becoming the Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in 1998. The 67-year-old was the court's Chief Justice from January 2011 until January 2017.
EDWARD MANSFIELD The 61-year-old is an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of Iowa who graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and then Yale Law School in 1982. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court of Iowa, he served as a judge in the Iowa Court of Appeals from 2009 until 2011.
KEVIN NEWSOM The 45-year-old, of Alabama, serves on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was the Solicitor General of Alabama from 2003 until 2007. He was nominated to the 11th Circuit by Trump last year.
