President Donald Trump’s narrowing down of Supreme Court picks is generating a lot of buzz in D.C., with conservatives happy with all three on his short list.
Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals are reported to be the three picks: Bill Pryor of Alabama, (11th Circuit), a former state attorney general and close friend of Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions; Neil Gorsuch of Colorado (10th Circuit), former deputy U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush and son of Ronald Reagan’s controversial EPA head Ann Gorsuch Burford; and Thomas M. Hardiman (3rd Circuit), another Bush appointee.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Tuesday that Trump would discuss the nomination with Senate leaders of both parties on Wednesday evening. Next Thursday Trump will announce his choice for the high court, according to a tweet from the president early Wednesday morning.
Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network summed up the enthusiasm among conservatives for any of the three. “It's a little like being on an Ivy League admissions committee,” said Severino, one-time law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. “You have a great list of people with 4.0 averages and 1600 SATs. Each of these options has his own strengths and unique personal story, and the president will get to decide which of these great judges to go with.”
On Tuesday afternoon, ABC News called Gorsuch the front-runner for selection among the three. However, many court-watchers say that Trump’s mention of Pryor as a candidate he would consider during a debate soon after Scalia’s death gives him an edge. In addition, they note Pryor’s ties to Sessions, who preceded him as attorney general of their state.
Democrats, for their part, made it clear they were preparing for a fight. “If the nominee is not bipartisan and mainstream, we absolutely will keep the seat open,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
In response to a question I posed at a Christian Science Monitor press breakfast last week, President Obama’s press secretary Josh Earnest said he didn’t “want to go too far down the line in predicting what Senate Democrats will do. To answer your question in a spirit of comity — not comedy — if Democrats were in a position to filibuster the nomination of President Trump’s nominee, that will mean President Trump’s nominee got a hearing; that will mean President Trump’s nominee came up for a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate; that will mean Democrats will have considered the career and quality and competence and character of President Trump’s nominee."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.