Barack Obama spent hours reading legal briefs as he mulled candidates for the Supreme Court. Bill Clinton savored building a personal connection with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And Ronald Reagan offered a personal touch in making his case for Anthony Kennedy after his first two picks for a vacancy went sideways. President Donald Trump has a style all his own for selecting a nominee for the high court. He’s flying by the seat of his pants with his frequent public deliberations on replacing Ginsburg, a process that’s moving at warp speed. In recent history, the process of picking a nominee has been notable for hush-hush meetings with finalists, presidents looking to cement a personal connection with their pick, invasive vetting and carefully planned media relations blitzes to support the nominee. Trump is holding little back, readily airing his thinking on the state of the deliberations. He’s acknowledged the potential political benefits of those he might pick — his short list includes candidates from battleground states Florida and Michigan. The prospect of establishing a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court offers him a chance to energize supporters six weeks before Election Day. Current and former advisers to Trump, who says he’s considering five women, say the process for the president comes down to answering two general questions: Does the person have the judicial temperament to satisfy and spark his conservative base ahead of the Nov. 3 election and is she able to handle what is certain to be a bruising confirmation fight? “When the president interviews these five, he’s asking, ‘Is this person sitting in front of me tough enough to take what’s coming?’” said Joe Grogan, the president’s former White House domestic policy director. “What lays ahead will be brutal.”″ Trump, who has promised to announce his nomination Saturday, remains in close consultation with staff, but he’s not playing an aggressive hands-on role in vetting finalists or asking specific questions about their backgrounds or specific rulings, according to one person involved in the process who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The president’s primary role is centered on the final stage of the process — the interviews, where he explores their judicial philosophies, their courage and any potential weaknesses. He did just that with finalists for his first two Supreme Court selections, holding private conversations that lasted 50 minutes to an hour. In those talks, Trump tested the candidates’ reactions to other Supreme Court justices and specific criticism from others, among other topics, according to the individual involved in Trump’s selection process. With this vacancy, Trump has lightheartedly polled supporters at campaign rallies about whether he should select a man or woman, publicly shared that he’s gotten good feedback about one federal judge he’s giving consideration and marveled that another contender is only 38. “I do think that this is yet another example where precedent and historical examples seem to offer less of a guide than they once did,” said Ted Frantz, a presidential historian at the University of Indianapolis. “This administration uses a different playbook when it comes to SCOTUS nominations,” using an acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States. Trump’s predecessors had varied — and mostly quiet — parts in their administration’s vetting. But Reagan, in a weekly radio address, vouched personally to […]

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