Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Wednesday that he would not accept a nomination to the Supreme Court shortly after President Trump named him on a shortlist of candidates for the high court.
“I appreciate the President’s confidence in listing me as a potential Supreme Court nominee,” Hawley tweeted Wednesday. “But as I told the President, Missourians elected me to fight for them in the Senate, and I have no interest in the high court. I look forward to confirming constitutional conservatives.”
Hawley was one of three sitting GOP senators on the shortlist, along with Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
Hawley clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts after graduating from Yale Law School.
The Missouri senator made the comments after saying in July that he would only vote to confirm nominees to the high court who believe Roe v. Wade was “wrongly decided.”
“I don’t want private assurances from candidates. I don’t want to hear about their personal views, one way or another. I’m not looking for forecasts about how they may vote in the future or predications. I don’t want any of that,” Hawley, who has not yet had an opportunity to vote on a Supreme Court nominee, told The Washington Post. “I want to see on the record, as part of their record, that they have acknowledged in some forum that Roe v. Wade, as a legal matter, is wrongly decided.”
The same day as Hawley’s tweet, Cotton tweeted that it was “time for Roe v. Wade to go” after the president’s announcement.