Today Tony Mauro interviewed me in the National Law Journal about our newly-launched FantasyJustice feature on FantasySCOTUS to predict Justice Scalia’s replacement.

The crowdsourcing survey, the brainchild of Supreme Court blogger and scholar Josh Blackman, got it right in 2010 when Elena Kagan “floated to the top” before President Barack Obama nominated her, as Blackman put it in an interview. “No doubt, President Obama checked our site,” Blackman joked on his blog.

Tony also quoted my Hugo-Black theory for why Ted Cruz may be the nominee–to get him out of the Senate:

Blackman, an associate professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, said Cruz has a “nontrivial” chance to be nominated and confirmed, in part because some senators would like nothing better than for him to leave the Senate. “I’m from Texas, and if Ted Cruz stays in the Senate, he’ll be re-elected until he is 90,” Blackman said.

As for whether FantasyJustice will be helpful to the administration:

Will FantasySCOTUS have an impact on Trump’s pick? Blackman said he was not sure, but added, “Donald Trump loves polls.”

After the second day of polling, Judge Kethledge (CA6) jumped to the lead with 39 votes in the last 24 hours. Following Kethledge are Pryor, Cruz, Sykes, and Willett.

Kevin Daley also offered a writeup at the Daily Caller:

Josh Blackman, a law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston, is curating a LexPredict contest at FantasySCOTUS which allows entrants to pick the most likely nominee from Trump’s 21-person list (plus Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, given rumors abounding on Capitol Hill). FantasySCOTUS is a Supreme Court fantasy league which allows participants to make predictions about cases before the Court, which Blackman also runs. Both FantasySCOTUS and his blog have a following among lawyers, journalists, and law professors.

As did the ABA Journal:

Those who feel like making predictions on the next nominee can do so in a new #FantasyJustice tournament by FantasySCOTUS and LexPredict, according to Josh Blackman’s Blog. Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, is one of the creators of FantasySCOTUS. The #FantasyJustice list has the 21 names on Trump’s list, as well as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was backed by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, during a Veterans Day event, Politico reported.