(RepublicanNews.org) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is widely expected to announce a 2024 presidential run soon, and his recent thoughts on what the Supreme Court should look like may indicate that announcement is coming soon.
During an address to the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on May 22nd, DeSantis said whoever becomes president next may have to fill two seats on the nation’s highest court. Conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito may need to be replaced. Presumably, DeSantis meant that they may retire, as he had glowing words for both.
“They are the gold standard for jurisprudence,” DeSantis said, and it would not be easy to replace them. If a judge in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts were to replace Clarence Thomas, said DeSantis, “you’re actually going to see the court move to the left.”
The Florida governor’s speculation did not stop with Thomas and Alito. He said the next commander in chief might have to appoint replacements for Chief Justice Roberts, nominally a conservative, and liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. This would allow the next president to set up a court with a 7-2 conservative majority, he said.
DeSantis’ own appointments in Florida may serve as a preview of what Americans can expect if he were to win the presidency in 2024. He recently elevated conservative appeals court judge Meredith Sasso to the Florida Supreme Court. She is the seventh state supreme court justice DeSantis has placed during his project of making the court more conservative.
Sasso graduated from law school in 2008 and worked in private practice. She served as chief deputy general counsel under former state governor Rick Scott before he appointed her to the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
Desantis told convention-goers that he “inherited a very liberal state supreme court,” and said he was thankful that Florida has age limits for its justices. That allowed him to place three conservative justices on the court in his first month as governor, he said.
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