Trump and Future Supreme Court Nominees

Yesterday I went into what is probably a flight of political fantasy by suggesting that Donald Trump might help his own political relations with the Senate by pushing the Republicans to let his predecessor's U.S. Supreme Court pick to go through the confirmation process before he himself is sworn into office on January 20.  Trump has already flatly stated that he would only pick candidates for the high court from a list of 21 he has made public for a couple of months.  But it wouldn't necessarily be breaking a campaign promise if my idea is implemented...after all, Merrick Garland is Obama's nominee.  Still, I'm realistic enough to recognize that the president-elect won't take advantage of this opportunity to preemptively break the spirit of certain gridlock and obstruction that awaits his presidency.  After all, the Democrats in the Senate remember only too clearly what the Republicans under Mitch McConnell's "leadership" did to Obama during his two terms as president...

As for that short-list of Trump's SCOTUS possibilities, here are the names, courtesy of the Trump campaign website:

1. Keith Blackwell
2. Charles Canady
3. Steven Colloton
4. Allison Eid
5. Neil Gorsuch
6. Raymond Gruender
7. Thomas Hardiman
8. Raymond Kethledge
9. Joan Larsen
10. Mike Lee
11. Thomas Lee
12. Edward Mansfield
13. Federico Moreno
14. William Pryor
15. Margaret A. Ryan
16. Amul Thapar
17. Timothy Tymkovich
18. David Stras
19. Diane Sykes
20. Don Willett
21. Robert Young

I only know a couple of these names...Senator Mike Lee (of Utah), a staunch tea-party conservative who is incidentally a close political ally of Ted Cruz and a great speaker, and Justice Charles Canady, who has been on the Florida Supreme Court for several years and served a stint on it as Chief Justice.  I'll be checking on some of the other names to see how viable a list this will be for Trump to draw upon.  After all, he will have to get whatever nominees he does choose through the Senate confirmation process...by no means automatic with the Republican control of that body already narrowed by two seats in the recent election...