Allison Eid, ’91, and Thomas Lee, ‘91: "Who’s Who on Trump’s Supreme Court Wish List"

Donald Trump on Wednesday disclosed the names of 11 candidates he would consider to fill the current vacancy at the U.S. Supreme Court. The list includes six federal appeals court judges appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, as well as five state Supreme Court justices with conservative credentials.

Here’s a quick look at the Trump 11:

• Allison Eid

Allison Eid, 51, has been an associate justice on the Colorado Supreme Court, the state’s highest, since 2006, appointed by former Republican Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. Before joining the bench, she served as Colorado’s solicitor general representing state officials and agencies in court. She also taught at University of Colorado Law School and worked as a litigator at the Denver office of Arnold & Porter LLP. She received her bachelor’s degree from Stanford and law degree from the University of Chicago.

In 2012, Judge Eid wrote the majority opinion ruling that the University of Colorado’s policy to ban students from carrying handguns on campus was unlawful. She also wrote a decision last year that said companies in Colorado, which has decriminalized most marijuana use, can fire employees for using marijuana outside of work because the activity still violates federal law.

• Thomas R. Lee

Thomas Lee of Utah is an associate justice of the Utah Supreme Court, a position to which he was appointed in 2010 by Gov. Gary Herbert. While on the court, Justice Lee has authored a number of high-profile opinions, including one that overturned a 4-year-old adoption on grounds that a lower court had improperly terminated the birth-father’s parental rights, and a ruling striking down a law that allowed the state to increase a sentence based on an inmate’s behavior at a state hospital.

From 1997 until his appointment to the Utah Supreme Court, Justice Lee served on the faculty of Brigham Young University’s law school with a short stint in Washington, D.C., working as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Division. He got his undergraduate degree from BYU and his law degree in 1991 from the University of Chicago, and he clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Justice Lee, 51, is also the son of former U.S. Solicitor General Rex Lee and the brother of current U.S. Senator Mike Lee. As a boy, according to the Deseret News, Justice Lee “said he assumed he would be a lawyer because his father, the founding dean of the BYU law school who died of cancer in 1996, was a lawyer.” While his thoughts changed in high school, according to the story, “after taking some government classes and participating in moot court, he became hooked on the law.”