Donald Trump's SCOTUS Nominee List Doesn't Include People of Color

Impact

Donald Trump released Wednesday a list of potential Supreme Court nominees, should he emerge as the president-elect in November. On his list of 11 names there are no people of color.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, released the list as an answer to conservative critics that he might not choose a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia who is conservative enough. The GOP has refused to hold confirmation hearings for Judge Merrick Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated as Scalia's replacement in March.

Read more: Here Are the 11 Potential Justices Donald Trump Is Considering for the Supreme Court
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In his choice of Garland, a 63-year-old chief justice on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Obama upset some in the African- and Asian-American communities, for not choosing someone of color. 

The lack of diversity in Trump's choices — all Republican legal minds and only three women — hasn't gone unnoticed by observers who weighed on social media Wednesday afternoon.

But there are perhaps several reasons why Trump has decided not to choose a person of color to succeed Scalia:

Adding a Latino or Asian-American justice could make the court more sympathetic to immigration reform.

In April, the eight justices currently on the Supreme Court heard a challenge to Obama's court-halted executive action on immigration. The policy offered a reprieve to millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and allowed many to apply for work permits.

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A left-leaning African-American justice could sway the court to rule in favor of civil rights nationwide.

The court ruled in April to uphold the "one person, one vote" rule that regulates how legislative and voting districts are drawn. The case, Evenwel v. Abbott, originated out of Texas. That state has battled with federal officials over other voting rights issues, including a strict photo ID requirement that critics said disenfranchised mostly Democratic voters and minorities.

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The billionaire real estate mogul launched his presidential campaign last summer by calling Mexican immigrants "rapists" and "criminals." And then, following the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and the deadly shootings in San Bernardino, California, Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslim travel to the U.S.

Discussion of the qualifications of Trump's potential nominees aside, it's glaringly obvious that Trump isn't thinking about diversity on the highest court in the land.