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There Is No Supreme Court Vacancy, But This Group Is Already Spending Money To Attack Trump’s Potential Picks

Demand Justice is launching a five-figure digital ad campaign attacking judges on Trump’s Supreme Court short list.

There is no open seat on the US Supreme Court right now, but the fight over the next vacancy is already underway.

Demand Justice, a liberal nonprofit that opposes President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, will roll out a digital ad campaign on Tuesday targeting judges on Trump’s short list of potential Supreme Court nominees. There are three ads to start, and the group plans to release more in the next few weeks.

The initial mid-five-figure digital ad campaign is pennies compared to the millions of dollars that liberal and conservative groups are prepared to spend when a seat does open up on the Supreme Court. But Demand Justice executive director Brian Fallon said his group wants to take advantage of the opportunity now — before Trump’s supporters have a nominee to rally around — to give liberals the tools to attack whomever Trump chooses from day one. …

Demand Justice’s first ads focus on three federal appeals court judges on Trump’s list: Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit; DC Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh; and 6th Circuit Judge Amul Thapar. Fallon says they won’t make ads for everyone on the list but expect to produce up to 10 ads in the first push; one for 8th Circuit Judge David Stras is already in production, he said. …

Each ad has a theme. Barrett’s ad is about her criticism of the US Supreme Court's decision upholding the Affordable Care Act; Kavanaugh’s highlights comments he made in the late 1990s supporting a larger role for the president in independent counsel investigations; and Thapar’s notes his ties to McConnell and an opinion he wrote about Kentucky campaign finance rules.

Fallon said the goal of the ads is to show how issues that matter to Democratic voters — such as health care, checks on presidential power, and campaign finance — cross over into the federal courts. …

Demand Justice launched last month with a staff of eight people, including Christopher Kang, who worked on judicial nominations in the Obama administration, and Paige Herwig, also an Obama administration alum and former deputy general counsel to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.