Trump has provided a list of possible Supreme Court nominees.  One problem is that Trump's word is totally unreliable. And when he provided the list he gave himself wiggle-room, saying he would "probably" pick from this list, and if not it would be someone in "the same general area" and who knows what that means in the mind of the Donald.

Trump seems to be locked into seeing the world as a place where one is constantly closing this or that deal. Right now, he is "closing the deal" with unifying the conservatives behind him and quieting any voters that might regard him as a loose cannon when it comes to who he would pick as a Supreme Court nominee. When that "deal" has closed, we have no way of knowing if he will hold to his "promise." What we do know is that he has a track record of being very capable of making enticing offers.

One political pundit asked, "What if a President Trump was working on a deal with the Senate Democrats about something he wants badly. Would he be willing to nominate a moderate or liberal Supreme Court nominee to close the new deal?"  There doesn't seem to be anyway to answer that question.

So... we have Trump's list, but we don't know if we can count on him nominating from that list. As to the names on the list, we hear lots of good things about them. "Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review." (From Shapiro's bio page at CATO).  Here is what he published on CATO about these names:

Donald Trump’s Terrific List of Fabulous Judges

    By Ilya Shapiro

We’ve been waiting for months for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to release his list of potential Supreme Court appointees. Today he actually came through on that promise. The would-be justices, in the (alphabetical) order in which they appear in the AP story that broke the news, are:

•Judge Steve Colloton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Iowa)

•Justice Allison Eid of the Colorado Supreme Court

•Judge Raymond Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (Missouri)

•Judge Thomas Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania)

•Judge Raymond Kethledge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Michigan)

•Justice Joan Larsen of the Michigan Supreme Court

•Justice Thomas Lee of the Utah Supreme Court

•Judge William Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Alabama)

•Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court

•Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Wisconsin)

•Justice Don Willett of the Texas Supreme Court

This is an exceptional list. I’m not intimately familiar with all 11 judges and I don’t expect to agree with all of them on everything, but those whose jurisprudence I know well are excellent and the others have sterling reputations. These are not squishes or lightweights.

Also notable and commendable is that 5 of the 11 are state supreme court justices; not all judicial talent is already on the federal bench and the U.S. Supreme Court could use that sort of different perspective. I’ll forego quibbling over this or that pick – whom to drop for a top 10 or 5, whom to add to round out to 15, whether Senator Mike Lee would be better than his brother – but want to emphasize that these are among the very best judges who are young and smart enough to be on the Court.

I’m no fan of the Donald – and who knows whether he’d follow through if elected? – but he’s listening to the right advisers here. As I’ve previously written, Trump may not know originalism from origami, but there are better reasons to vote against him than judges.

-------------------

I think that Donald Trump is a con-man. But I'd vote for a con-man over the corrupt progressive or the self-avowed socialist.... if I could believe he wasn't conning us about the Supreme Court.  The constitution - which, battered and feeble as its influence on today's government is, still stands as the final thread that might save us from total tyranny.

If I decide Trump won't stick by that list, I'll vote for the Libertarian - without even looking to see who that is.

The GOP voters (actually nearly all voters) have a long track record of grasping at hopeful promises, clutching them to their breasts as they march into the voting booth. Will this be another Charlie Brown moment where Lucy promises not to move the football at the last second?   I feel like I've been stuck in a Charlie Brown moment.