President Trump Has Narrowed Supreme Court Picks Down to Three

According to NBC News, which broke the story, President Donald J. Trump has a list of three conservative choices to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court!

Trump promised to appoint a conservative originalist to replace justice Antonin Scalia, and now it’s really happening.

This is great news!

The leading contenders — who all have met with Trump — are William Pryor, Neil Gorsuch and Thomas Hardiman, the person said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak publicly about internal decisions.

Pryor, 54, is an Alabama-based judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Gorsuch, 49, is on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hardiman, 51, is based in Pittsburgh for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All three were nominated by President George W. Bush for their current posts.

Fox News has more details about their backgrounds:

— Judge William Pryor, who sits on the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with chambers in Birmingham, Ala.

Pryor is close to Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, the Alabama senator. Born in 1962, he was initially given a recess appointment to the appeals court. Senate Democrats then tried to block Pryor’s subsequent nominations, citing his strong criticism of the Roe v. Wade decision establishing a woman’s right to an abortion. He called it the “worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.”

— Judge Neil Gorsuch, on the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with chambers in Denver

Born 1967, he went to Harvard Law School, then clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy. He went into private practice in Washington before joining the Bush Justice Department. His mother is Anne Burford, the first female administrator at the EPA. Gorsuch wrote the book “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.”

His name has been rising in Trump’s circle in recent weeks.

— Judge Thomas Hardiman, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, with chambers in Pittsburgh

Born 1965, he saw the Supreme Court affirm his 2010 ruling that a jail policy of strip-searching all those arrested does not violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Hardiman sits on the same court as Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who despite the family ties is not being considered for any high court vacancy.

The fact Hardiman did not attend an Ivy League school (as a Notre Dame undergrad and Georgetown Law grad) may appeal to Trump’s populist leanings, as could the fact he drove a taxi to finance his education.

The official announcement is expected later next week, as early as Monday morning.

As we’ve seen, the Supreme Court plays an incredibly important role in keeping the size of government in check. Too often, liberal activists have used the court to inflict changes the American people overwhelmingly oppose, and it’s essential that Scalia is replaced by someone with a similar conservative worldview.

Trump is keeping his promise by sticking with the judges he provided on a list during the 2016 campaign.

What do you think of Trump’s choices for SCOTUS? Please leave us a comment (below) and tell us.

Thomas is a movement conservative and American patriot. He has a vigorous blue-collar, Jacksonian attitude with a skeptical eye... More about Thomas

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