Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) suggested the next president could nominate two new justices to the Supreme Court to solidify its conservative majority.
DeSantis gave remarks at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention on Monday, outlining that the next president could shape a conservative majority on the Supreme Court over the next two terms. DeSantis is expected to announce his bid for the White House this week, which would make him the latest Republican to challenge former President Trump.
“But I think if you look over, you know, the next two presidential terms, there is a good chance that you could be called upon to seek replacements for Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito,” he said. “And the issue with that is you can’t really do better than those two. They are the gold standard for jurisprudence.”
DeSantis also blasted some of the Court’s conservative justices on the bench, saying “if you replace a Clarence Thomas with somebody like a Roberts or somebody like that, then you’re gonna actually see the court move to the left, and you can’t do that.”
He also noted that Justice John Roberts and Justice Sonia Sotomayor may need to be replaced over the next years.
“Alito and Thomas as well as actually make improvements with those others, and if you were able to do that, you would have a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court that would last a quarter century,” he said.
Republicans support a conservative majority on the Supreme Court because, among other things, it has overturned protections on access to abortion set by Roe v. Wade. In his remarks, DeSantis also touted his signing of the six-week abortion ban in Florida.
“Let’s be very clear on this, that when we are acting to protect an unborn child that has a detectable heartbeat. That is humane. That is not harsh. It is the right thing to do,” he said at the conference, which was met with applause.