Trump says he would consider KY Attorney General Daniel Cameron for Supreme Court
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is among 20 people President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would consider appointing to the U.S. Supreme Court if he is reelected to the presidency.
Cameron, 34, is a protege of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but has never served as a judge. While considered a rising star in the Republican Party, he is in his first term as attorney general.
“It is an honor to be mentioned by President Trump today,” Cameron said in a statement. “I remain focused on serving the people of Kentucky and delivering on my promise to tackle child abuse, human trafficking, the drug epidemic, and other public safety challenges throughout the commonwealth.”
Cameron has served as a clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Gregory VanTatenhove, legal counsel for McConnell and at the law firm Frost, Brown, Todd. In his campaign for Attorney General, he had to defend his qualifications against a lawsuit that claimed he had not been a “practicing attorney” long enough to serve as Attorney General. The case was ultimately dismissed.
Josh Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, said he was surprised Cameron’s name was on the list, citing his youth and lack of experience in a judicial setting.
“It would be unprecedented and so it would be pretty unlikely,” Douglas said when asked whether Cameron had a shot of being nominated to the Supreme Court. “If you look at the list of names, there are a lot of people who are more qualified and would be more likely.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is the last to serve on the Supreme Court without previously serving as a judge, but she was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (her nomination expired without being acted upon) and served as Solicitor General of the United States.
Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, said there are arguments on both sides about whether someone needs to serve as a judge before serving on the Supreme Court. He said Cameron’s age makes him an unlikely choice.
“That list looked to me like mainly a campaign document,” Wheeler said.
Trump also released a list of potential Supreme Court justices in 2016, a tactic some felt helped him secure enough support to win the election.
Marisa McNee, the spokeswoman for the Kentucky Democratic Party, responded with three letters.
“LOL,” she said.
McConnell has called his decision not to fill the vacant seat of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as one of the most consequential decisions of his political career, as it set up Trump’s ability to fill the seat after he was elected.
Both Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanugh were on the list of judges Trump released when he was running in 2016. All but one of the names on Trump’s 2016 list were people currently serving as judges, the exception being Sen. Mike Lee of Utah. The 2020 list contained more politicians, including Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas.
For his part, McConnell has touted his role in filling vacancies in the court with conservative justices as a key accomplishment as he seeks reelection in 2020. A spokesman for McConnell’s office said the senator was consulted on Cameron’s addition to the list of potential nominees.
Cameron is in the midst of conducting an investigation into the killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old former emergency room technician, at the hands of the Louisville Metro Police Department. The investigation has taken months and has drawn the ire of activists who have demanded Cameron bring charges against the officers who killed Taylor.
This story was originally published September 9, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
