U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last week floated the idea that President Donald Trump could nominate not one, but two or more Supreme Court justices.
“I think the odds are very good we'll see a vacancy this summer, if not this summer, next summer,” Cruz told "Special Report with Bret Baier.”
With Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony Kennedy both in their 80s, President Trump has the power to possibly move the nation's highest court to the right for years to come.
“The next vacancy, which is going to be the opportunity to shift the course of this court, to put a five-justice majority of constitutionalists on the court, that's going to be armageddon,” Cruz said, adding conservatives must start preparing for the fight.
Cruz however, nixed the idea he's interested in the post, saying he's happy in the U.S. Senate.
“This Supreme Court is going to be the institution that grades the papers of not only Congress, the president, the states, there's no way to overstate how important being on the Supreme Court is,” says T. Gerald Treece, vice president of the South Texas College of Law Houston.
“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, being the tough person that she is, I don't think she is going to resign” he says. “Justice Kennedy on the other hand, like Justice David Souter once said, I have other things I would like to do.”
Another vacancy could open the door for someone like Sen. Cruz.
“In my opinion, he probably would be a better judge than he is a senator,” Treece says. “He is scholar of constitutional law and he says he loves it.”
Meanwhile, Senate nomination hearings begin March 20 for Judge Neil Gorsuch, the Trump administration's pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia.