NEW ORLEANS – In the wake of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced 11 potential candidates for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, including a Tulane University law school grad.
He said the group, which included Tulane alum William Pryor, who sits on the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Alabama, would be the pool from which he would draw nominees.
“I plan to use this list as a guide to nominate our next United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump said in a news release.
David Meyer, dean of the Tulane law school, told Louisiana Record that Pryor “left an indelible mark here as a student.”
Meyer characterized Pryor as a “distinguished public servant” and friend of the school.
“Throughout his impressive career, Judge Pryor has built a reputation for straight talk and dedication to principle,” Meyer said.
While at Tulane, Pryor served as editor of the Tulane Law Review and founded the university’s chapter of the Federalist Society, according to Meyer. The judge graduated magna cum laude in 1987 and went on to clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom, a 1929 graduate of the Tulane law school.
Meyer said the judge often returns to campus and has a history of hiring Tulane graduates as clerks, including 2016 graduate Andrew Nussbaum.
“A person of deep faith who has written thoughtfully about the place of religion in public life, Judge Pryor as attorney general nevertheless prosecuted and helped remove from office Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore for defying a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from state property,” Meyer said. “While still attorney general, Judge Pryor also showed political courage by campaigning for the repeal of a provision in the state constitution banning interracial marriage.”
Pryor has served on the court of appeals since 2004. In 1997, he became attorney general in Alabama after voters elected Jeff Session as U.S. senator. He won election to the post in 1998 and 2002.
The judge serves on the U.S. Sentencing commission.
Editor's note: The story was edited to correct a writer's mistake on June 8, 2016.