Donald Trump has a list. It is not an ordinary list; it is a list of 21 people who could shape the future of the United States for the next decade should he win the election.

They are his potential nominees to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Antonin Scalia in February.

Hillary Clinton probably has her own list of candidates to fill the vacancy should she become the US president. The Supreme Court is intensely political and the power to nominate members to the bench enables a president to influence how the country is run long after he – or perhaps she – leaves office.

According to David Lubin, a law professor at the American University in Washington DC, the politicisation dates back to the 1980s. “Things really changed when Ronald Reagan started nominating some right-wing judges in the 1980s.”