WASHINGTON: Amul Thapar , a federal judge of Indian-origin, is on the shortlist of US President Trump's nominees for the US Supreme Court following Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement announced on Wednesday.

Kennedy was considered a swing vote and a balancing figure in a US Supreme Court tied 4-4 between conservative and liberal justices, and Trump’s pick to replace him, mainly on the basis of conservative credentials, will profoundly effect the life of every American for the next few decades in areas ranging from marriage to reproductive rights to gun control.

But is Thapar conservative enough to make the grade in what is being described as a seismic and epochal development in American life and politics?

Legal mavens across the country– not to speak of the White House and Congress- are scouring through the career records of Thapar and 25 others shortlisted by Trump last November to see who can rise to the top in arguably the most important job outside the Oval Office- perhaps even more important considering US Supreme Court justices have no term limits or retirement age.

Born in Troy, Michigan, where his father, who immigrated to the US to study and worked at Ford Motor Company after graduating, Thapar, 49, got his law degree from UC Berkeley. He practiced as an attorney in Washington DC, both for the government and in the private sector, before President George Bush nominated him for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, a state whose Senator Mitch McConnell would eventually become a pivotal figure in reconfiguring the US Supreme Court.

In 2017, with support from McConnell, Trump elevated Thapar to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the second Indian-American judge to make the grade after Sri Srinivasan, who was also shortlisted for the Supreme Court by President Obama after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in 2016.

President Obama eventually chose to nominate Merrick Garland over Srinivasan in 2016, but Senate Republicans led by McConnell blocked Obama’s pick, saying they could not consider the matter in an election year and the choice should be made by the incoming dispensation (SC nominees need a Senate hearing and vote). They eventually maneuvered to get Trump’s conservative nominee Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court after a titanic struggle (including changing Senate rules and procedures), ensuring that the apex court remained tied at 4-4. An Obama nominee like Garland to replace the Conservative Scalia would have tilted the Supreme Court towards the liberal side.

Democrats are now making the same argument (that Trump cannot nominate a justice in an election year) to at least keep it tied at 4-4, but McConnell and other Republicans are countering that this is a midterm election year and not the Presidential election year, and they will hold a hearing in fall (before the November Congressional election) once Trump makes his nomination.

The Kentucky Courier-Journal, citing legal experts, reported on Wednesday under the headline "Kentuckian is on Trump's short list for the Supreme Court" that Thapar has McConnell’s backing, while noting that Thapar is "known for his colorful opinions, sprinkled with pop culture references, and for working fanatical hours."

An analysis of his cases done by the Courier Journal in 2016 showed he's willing to be tough; He's also willing to stand up to the government, it added.

Most US Presidents are lucky to get to nominate one Supreme Court judge during their term, considered judges never retire. Thanks to McConnell checkmating Obama and the Democrats in the Senate, Trump and his Republicans have lucked into two, and should he nominate a conservative enough judge, be it Thapar or someone else, life in America is expected to change for the next two to three decades at least, perhaps longer.

Anthony Kennedy, the retiring justice, weighed in on the side of liberals in some of their most progressive rulings, from female reproductive rights to gay marriages, and there is a surge of panic in the Democratic and liberal ranks in the hours after his retirement that the United States will regress to what some jokingly refer to as "Jesustan" with a conservative shadow settling down on the country.

Even stand-up comics worried about the consequences of Kennedy’s untimely (from the liberal viewpoint) retirement. "I never thought I’d say this, but you’re only 81!" Stephen Colbert said about Kennedy’s exit, adding. "This is a seismic political event. I would not trust Trump to fundamentally change the dessert course. Oh, we are supremely scr***d."

