Michigan's Joan Larsen getting buzz to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Supreme Court

On Monday morning, in a phone interview on the show "FOX & Friends," Trump said he was considering "a great one from Michigan" among three or four other potential nominees, though he declined to mention a name. "It could be any of them," he said. A nomination is expected Friday or Saturday, he said.

Others, including Judge Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, who is on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Judge Barbara Lagoa of Florida, a Cuban-American on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, are considered by pundits to be potentially more likely choices, though Larsen is clearly not far down the list. Judge Allison Jones Rushing of North Carolina, who is on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is also believed to be under consideration.

Larsen's ties to Michigan, a potential swing state in the upcoming election, can't hurt her chances, and she has been considered less controversial than Barrett, whom abortion rights supporters have criticized as a direct threat to try to reverse the Roe v. Wade decision, and Lagoa, who was recently among the judges in her circuit ruling that former inmates who had not paid fees or fines couldn't vote in the upcoming election.

Larsen, at her confirmation hearing to the appellate court based in Cincinnati in 2017, said she would "have absolutely no trouble ruling against the president" if the facts called for it. She was confirmed by 60-38 vote with Michigan's two U.S. senators, both Democrats, voting for her.

"She has a lot of strengths, she had a really smooth (confirmation) hearing (to the 6th Circuit judgeship)," said Carl Tobias, an expert on judicial selection at the University of Richmond School of Law. "She is in the mix. I don’t think she’s at the top now but Trump is so volatile who knows what will happen in the next few days."

Then-Gov. Rick Snyder named Larsen to the Michigan Supreme Court in 2015, calling her an "outstanding candidate" with a "tremendous background." Bthat she had been part of President George W. Bush's administration, serving in the Office of Legal Counsel before moving to the University of Michigan, where she was a faculty member and served as special counsel to the dean for student and graduate activities. She also previously clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia after graduating from Northwestern University School of Law.

Her nomination to the 6th Circuit wasn't without some criticism: The Leadership Conference of Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights organizations, said she had "extreme views" in terms of giving power to the administration and "might be a rubber stamp for President Trump's executive actions." The group also said she had taken a restrictive view of LBGT rights.

Conservative columnist Hugh Hewitt praised her in the Washington Post on Monday, saying while all of the potential nominees are qualified, "politically, Larsen does the most for Trump," helping him not only in Michigan but in Iowa, where she was born.

"Larsen has vast charisma -- 'sparkle,' one of my federal judge friends put it to me -- and Democrats attacking her will be attacking every suburban mom who also works outside of the home," Hewitt wrote.

Contact Todd Spangler at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan's Joan Larsen getting buzz to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Supreme Court

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