Supreme Court nominee short list features candidates President Trump likes for different reasons

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump says he’s interviewed 4 Supreme Court candidates President Trump says he met with four potential Supreme Court Justice candidates on Monday as he works to fill the spot vacated by Justice Anthony Kennedy. He spoke alongside the Dutch Prime Minister, who was visiting the White House. (July 2)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says he likes all of his potential Supreme Court nominees.

Aides and advisers say he likes them for different reasons.

As Trump approaches Monday's announcement of his nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, aides and advisers say the president is weighing different factors for different candidates.

Perhaps the biggest factor: The degree of difficulty for Senate confirmation.

"He needs to produce a nominee who is hard to criticize on objective grounds," says David Lat, founder of the legal website Above The Law, who is in contact with officials involved in the process.

Here's a scorecard of pluses and minuses for the people on the president's short list:

Brett Kavanaugh of Maryland, 53, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Pluses: Like Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, named to the high court by Trump last year, he is out of conservative central casting. A Yale Law graduate to Gorsuch's Harvard, they served together as law clerks to retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Whip-smart and popular with the Federalist Society set, he has a long record of opinions and dissents that leaves little for Trump or Senate Republicans to worry about.

Minuses: That long record will give opponents much to work with. His mild dissent in a case upholding the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate left room for conservatives as well as liberals to disagree. His contention that presidents should be free from lawsuits and investigations likely pleases Trump but will confound Democrats. His work in the George W. Bush administration also could come back to haunt him.

Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, 46, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Pluses: She rocketed to the top of Trump's list with a stellar performance during her confirmation last fall, when Democrats cited her deep Catholic faith as a potential problem. The mother of seven children, including two from Haiti and one with special needs, she offers the imagery Trump craves. Being a woman may box in Democrats. Being from Indiana may box in moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, who faces a tough re-election campaign. Being the youngest on Trump's list buys more years on the court. And degrees from Notre Dame, where she taught for two decades, can't hurt.

Minuses: She has served as a judge for just eight months, which gives her the least experience of any of the potential nominees. She has written that Supreme Court precedents are not sacrosanct, which liberals have interpreted as a threat to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, 51, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit

Pluses: His strong adherence to textualism and originalism, the twin tenets that drove the late Justice Antonin Scalia, pleases conservatives. A finalist for the job last year, he emerged with Kavanaugh as a leading contender for the next opening. Like Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, he is a former Kennedy law clerk. He's known for his attention to detail in writing, which he often does from a remote, Internet-free cabin.

Minuses: Despite a decade on the appeals court, his record is thin in several areas of the law, which worries some conservatives. Though major cases on Obamacare and same-sex marriage came through his circuit, he did not serve on the panels considering them. His 2016 ruling that cellphone users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their location records was overturned at the Supreme Court this term.

Amul Thapar of Kentucky, 49, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit

Pluses: After Gorsuch, he was Trump's first federal court nominee last year. His guardian angel in the Senate is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentuckian. He would be the first Indian American on the court, and among few in history to have trial experience on a district court. Nevertheless, he often was designated to sit on appellate court panels, giving him needed experience. He is a strong writer.

Minuses: He has served on the appeals court for little more than a year and has yet to rule on most controversial topics, giving conservatives little proof of his convictions.

Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, 52, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit

Pluses: He was the runner-up to Gorsuch in 2017, giving him instant credibility. He's a law-and-order conservative in the mold of Associate Justice Samuel Alito, who came from the same appeals court. Maryanne Trump Barry, the president's sister, served with him until her retirement. He drove a taxi to get through law school, and his degrees from Notre Dame and Georgetown give him a non-Ivy League appeal.

Minuses: His star appears to be fading. A limited paper trail on the appeals court worries some conservatives. He is not known as a great legal theorist like Kavanaugh, nor is he a "feeder judge" whose law clerks are snapped up by Supreme Court justices. While Kavanaugh has sent 41 clerks there, Hardiman has sent none.