Trump pledges new list of conservative Supreme Court contenders

[June 19, 2020]  By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, hit by a second U.S. Supreme Court loss in four days, said on Thursday he plans to issue an updated list of potential conservative nominees to the high court after the justices halted one of his hardline immigration policies.

"Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before," Trump, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, wrote on Twitter post.

Trump helped bolster his standing with conservatives in the Republican Party when he unveiled a list of high court contenders as a presidential candidate in May 2016. Trump, who has appointed a series of conservative judges to the federal judiciary since taking office in 2017, said he would update his current list for the high court, compiled by conservative legal activists, by Sept. 1.

The Republican president specifically mentioned protecting gun rights under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment, an issue important to his base of conservative voters.

"We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else" he wrote.

Trump assailed the Supreme Court after it on Thursday blocked his move to rescind a program that protects hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who entered the country illegally as children from deportation.

Trump has made two appointments to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. In Thursday's ruling, both sided with him.

President Donald Trump arrives to discuss a Trump administration plan aimed at helping to prevent suicides by U.S. veterans and other Americans, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 17, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

"These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives," Trump wrote on Twitter.

It was the second time this week that conservative Chief Justice John Roberts ruled against Trump in a major case after Monday's decision finding that gay and transgender workers are protected under federal employment law. In that ruling, Gorsuch was among the justices joining the ruling against Trump.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Will Dunham; Editing by Chris Reese)

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