Trump names 20 new possible Supreme Court picks

President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he is adding 20 names to a list of Supreme Court candidates that he's pledged to choose from if he has future vacancies to fill.

The list includes Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri - who have all been mentioned as possible 2024 Republican presidential candidates - as well as Christopher Landau, the current ambassador to Mexico, and Noel Francisco, who argued 17 cases as the Trump administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer.

“Every one of these individuals will ensure equal justice, equal treatment and equal rights for citizens of every race, color, religion and creed," Trump said as he made his announcement at the White House.

Trump also warned his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, would select “radical justices” who would “fundamentally transform America," even though Biden has never outlined his list of potential choices.

The release, less than two months before the election, is aimed at repeating the strategy that Trump employed during his 2016 campaign, when he released a similar list of could-be judges in a bid to win over conservative and evangelical voters who had doubts about his conservative bonafides.

The list includes several people who have worked for Trump, including Gregory Katsas, whom Trump nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Before that, Katsas served as a legal adviser to Trump and worked on some of the president’s most contentious decisions, including his executive orders restricting travel for citizens of predominantly Muslim countries and his decision to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation.

Francisco, the former solicitor general of the United States, also defended Trump’s travel ban, his push to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census and the decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects some 660,000 young people from deportation.

He also argued that a landmark civil rights law didn’t protect gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment, a position the court ruled against 6-3 earlier this year.

The high court is currently divided 5-4 between conservatives and liberals.

While there is no current vacancy on the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, has been undergoing cancer treatment, and three others members of the court are in their 70s and 80s.