We started with the list of 25 eligible jurists that had won Donald Trump the election, assuring conservative elites and a crucial slice of the electorate that whatever crazy deviation from political orthodoxy the man represented, he actually did have the best people working on judicial nominations. (Read Salena Zito and Brad Todd’s remarkable “The Great Revolt” if you doubt that Iowa farmers and Michigan waitresses weren’t paying exceedingly close attention to the fight for Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat.)
In due course, contenders emerged — a short list of appealing personalities that ranged in background about as much as federal judges could. There was the son of Indian immigrants who was born in Toledo and made a name for himself in Kentucky (Amul Thapar); a brilliant law professor and mother of seven from Indiana (Amy Coney Barrett); an introverted Michigan judge who preferred the solitude of his wilderness cabin to the stifling Washington swamp (Ray Kethledge); a Pittsburgher who was the first in his family to graduate college and put himself through law school by driving a taxi (Tom Hardiman); and of course the boyish D.C. insider with the strong opinions on the separation of powers (Brett Kavanaugh), the only Ivy Leaguer in the bunch who seemed to have been preparing for this moment his entire life.