Getty Who will Trump pick to replace Anthony Kennedy? Thomas Hardiman (l) and William Pryor (r) are possibilities.
Who will President Donald Trump nominate to replace retiring and centrist Justice Anthony Kennedy? With recent Supreme Court decisions going 5-4 in Trump’s direction (on public unions, on the travel ban), the nomination will give the president a chance to cement a super-thin conservative majority.
Just moments after the Associated Press confirmed Kennedy is retiring, Trump revealed a list of 25 people he will consider for the nomination to replace Anthony Kennedy. Thomas Hardiman and William Pryor reportedly were second and third choices when Trump chose Neil Gorsuch. However, recent news reports indicate that Trump may be looking at federal Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh most closely.
Here is the list of 25:
Here’s the 25 people on Trump’s list of potential SCOTUS picks, which Trump just said he’ll pull from to replace Kennedy (per @HallieJackson)
Here’s what you need to know:
Trump Had a Short List of Replacements Before Picking Neil Gorsuch to Replace Justice Scalia
GettyDonald Trump.
Trump made Supreme Court nominations a central theme during the 2016 presidential campaign. In May 2016, he released a list of 11 judges he would consider for nominations.
According to CNN, the names on the list included “Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado, Raymond Gruender of Missouri, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas.” That list was very similar to Trump’s expanded list of 25.
When time came to replace Scalia, though, Hardiman and Pryor emerged, along with Gorsuch, as the leading replacement contenders.
Hardiman Was Reportedly the Second Choice After Gorsuch
Hardiman.
Hardiman was second on the list when Trump went with Gorsuch, making him a strong prediction to be Trump’s nominee to replace Kennedy.
Hardiman is a U.S. District Court Judge who is based in Pennsylvania and serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a position he was nominated to by George W. Bush.
The AP reported that Hardiman is a “colleague” of Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. According to Scotus Blog, Hardiman, born in Massachusetts, “became the first person in his family to go to college” and drove a taxi to pay for law school. The blog reported that he has taken an “originalist” approach to gun cases and described Hardiman as “a solid, although hardly knee-jerk, conservative who was active in Republican politics before joining the federal bench.”
Hardiman, according to CBS, was the second of Trump’s two final possibilities, along with Gorsuch. Obviously, he went with Gorsuch, who has proven instrumental in giving Trump victories on key cases recently.
A professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh told the Post-Gazette, “He’s conservative, but not wildly so. That makes him confirmable.” The newspaper quoted another law professor as saying that Hardiman has not handled many high profile cases and the ACLU as saying he shows deference to government in decisions.
William Pryor
William Pryor. (Getty)
Some other news sites included William Pryor as the third possibility on Trump’s shortlist when he chose Gorsuch. That makes Pryor someone to watch in the wake of the Kennedy retirement announcement. The Associated Press reported that Trump had narrowed the list to Pryor, Hardiman and Gorsuch before picking Gorsuch.
Pryor is based in Alabama and serves on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was also nominated to his position by George W. Bush.
Pryor had a harder time winning nomination. “Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on his nomination, leading Bush initially to give Pryor a temporary recess appointment,” the AP reported. He was eventually confirmed on a 53-45 vote. That could signal that his nomination by Trump could provoke a clash.
Scotus Blog reports that Pryor, 54, “earned his B.A. from Northeast Louisiana University in 1984 and his J.D. from Tulane University Law School 1987.”
He was Alabama attorney general, when he became known for removing a chief justice who refused “to follow a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building,” the blog reports.
He’s had other controversial moments; according to Scotus Blog, Pryor once wrote a legal brief defending a sodomy ban and called Roe v. Wade the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.” U.S. News & World Report says Pryor may have fallen out of favor with Trump for joining “his federal appellate court colleagues in a 2011 ruling that protects transgender rights in the workplace.”
A Wisconsin Choice?
Judge Diane S. Sykes, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, delivers the Peck Lecture in Hays Hall. She will receive the 45th Senior Peck Medal tonight.
Diane Sykes is one of the female judges to make Trump’s list. The Court of Appeals judge based out of Chicago is a former Wisconsin jurist. However, at age 60, some observers think she might be too old for a pick by a president looking to reshape the court for generations to come.
Once chief of staff to the president, but no longer, Reince Priebus is the former executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party and is well acquainted with Sykes as a result. It’s unclear how that would factor in, if at all.
CNN listed Sykes and Pryor, along with Hardiman and Gorsuch, on Trump’s potential shortlist for the choice given to Gorsuch. Her age is seen as a detriment to some as she is older than the other people making short lists.
Sykes recently authored an opinion that struck down laws seen as restricting gun rights.
Judge Diane Sykes, on Trump’s #SCOTUS shortlist, writes opinion striking down three Chicago provisions as limiting 2nd Amendment rights.
In one of the presidential debates, Trump brought up the names of Sykes and Pryor as possible Supreme Court picks.
Sykes was born in Milwaukee, graduated from Marquette University, and was a journalist and then a lawyer in private practice before becoming a Milwaukee County Circuit Judge and a state of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, according to Chicago Magazine. The magazine noted that, when George W. Bush nominated Sykes to the federal courts in 2003, she was confirmed by 70-27 with the support of Wisconsin’s two Democratic U.S. Senators.
Sykes has described herself as an “originalist-textualist,” reported Newsweek.
She is the ex wife of Charlie Sykes, a former conservative talk show host in Milwaukee and MSNBC contributor who is a well-known member of the Never Trump movement.
