As Trump readies to announce Supreme Court pick, one judge emerges as top candidate
President Donald Trump announced Monday morning that he had settled on a nominee for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court — and one formerly dark-horse candidate has emerged as the judge with quite possibly the inside track to score the nod.
Thomas Hardiman, a 51-year-old judge who sits on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, has caught the attention of observers to fill the void left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia for several reasons.
With Democrats threatening to block Trump's Supreme Court pick, it's noteworthy that Hardiman was voted onto the appeals court in 2007 by a 95-0 tally. Both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted to approve him.
Hardiman, at 37, was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve on the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He was nominated to the appeals court four years later.
A Notre Dame graduate who received his law degree from Georgetown, Hardiman would find himself in sparse company on the Supreme Court bench — each justice currently seated holds an Ivy League law degree.
"For sure he's a conservative. In his philosophies, he is a Republican, There's no question about his conservative bona fides. He was active in the Republican Party when he came to Pittsburgh — very successful at that, by the way — so you would have to say he'd be of the conservative mold."
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-supreme-court-nomination-frontrunner-2017-1
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Trump’s Supreme Court Pick Set for Tuesday: Here Are the 3 Leading Names
The rumored short list included Judge Neil Gorsuch from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Gorsuch, 49, is known for siding with religious liberty advocates in cases involving birth control and clerked for current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Another name is William Pryor Jr., a 54-year-old who sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. While Pryor Jr. is considered the most polarizing choice for Democrats because of remarks calling the abortion decision Roe v. Wade the "worst abomination of constitutional law," he has also been criticized as insufficiently conservative by some on the right.
The final name on Trump's short list is Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit, who sits in Pittsburgh. While Hardiman, 51, was not initially considered a leading candidate, some see he has an inside track in part because he sits on the same court as Trump's sister. He is also seen as having an edge because he does not have an Ivy League background (a complaint among many conservative is all of the current Justices went to Harvard or Yale), and drove a taxi during law school.
While the legal community widely expects him to choose among these three names, Trump's habit of being unpredictable means a surprise is also possible.
http://fortune.com/2017/01/30/donald-trump-supreme-court-judge/
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President Trump: “I think evangelicals, Christians will love my pick.”
WINNING!