Trump's best conservative pick for the Supreme Court

The search for Gorsuch 2.0 is underway at the White House. The best choice for the opening is Judge Raymond Kethledge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

The 51-year-old judge from central casting — just like Neil Gorsuch — is not as well-known as front-runner U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But the longtime Michigan resident brings political upside to the process that Kavanaugh and several other contenders cannot.

During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump pledged his Supreme Court nominees would be thoroughgoing "originalists" in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. So the first question is: Has the nominee ruled steadily in a fashion consistent with the original intent of the Constitution and its amendments, and been faithful to the statutes passed by the executive and legislative branches?

Kethledge's record shows that in his case, the answer is a resounding "yes." He has stood strongly with free exercise rights, siding for example with a church and its volunteers against the Labor Department's bureaucrats, writing a separate concurrence to emphasize "The Department should tend to what is Caesar's, and leave the rest alone."

He has an exemplary record on Second Amendment rights, concurring with his colleague Judge Jeffrey Sutton's declaration of the right to bear arms as "fundamental" in a crucial en banc case on the amendment.

Kethledge has also dissented in a Fifth Amendment takings case from the decision of his colleagues to punt back an aggrieved party to state court concluding that the court had "lost our constitutional bearings" on property rights.

In these and many more cases, Kethledge has been faithful for more than a decade to the originalist approach.

Kethledge is also not another Harvard Law or Yale Law attendee, and with eight of those remaining on the court — Ruth Bader Ginsburg got her J.D. from Columbia, but her first two years were spent in Cambridge — the University of Michigan Law School credential sends an important message to the country.

Married 25 years and a man of faith, he's also an avid hunter and fisherman, a not insignificant detail.

How about longevity? He's 51 and, as noted, I am told by those who do know him, he is in superb physical shape.

Finally but crucially, how will the judge do under the heat of the lights and the often absurd questions?

Those who know Kethledge assure me it would be a replay of Gorsuch's commanding performance: knowledge mixed with grace and humor. In other words, a nightmare for the Democrats.

Hugh Hewitt is a conservative radio host and lawyer.

This story was originally published July 6, 2018 at 5:32 PM.