The idea that Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, is among the president’s judicial counselors makes some Republicans nervous. | AP Photo Trump's sister weighs in on Supreme Court pick The president's older sibling serves on a federal appeals court with Judge Thomas Hardiman, one of the two leading contenders to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat.

One of President Donald Trump’s two leading finalists to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, Judge Thomas Hardiman, has a quiet but influential ally in the high-stakes legal drama: Trump’s sister.

Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who serves with Hardiman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, has spoken to her brother in favor of elevating him to the high court, according to two people familiar with the conversations.


“Maryanne is high on Hardiman,” said one adviser who has spoken directly with the president about the matter.

That he would rely on input from his family for a key decision is hardly surprising. He’s installed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior adviser with a West Wing office. He’s taken cues on child care policies from his daughter Ivanka Trump, who’s married to Kushner. And Trump gave all his adult children speaking slots at the Republican National Convention and has entrusted his two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, with his most prized possession during the presidency: his company.

Since November, Trump has narrowed his Supreme Court choices from a list of 21 potential picks he announced during the campaign. He interviewed at least three finalists in New York prior to moving into the White House, including Hardiman, 10th Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch and 11th Circuit Judge Bill Pryor.

People familiar with the search process have said that Hardiman, 51, and Gorsuch, 49, have emerged as the front-runners to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia, with Pryor’s chances fading in recent weeks due to opposition from the evangelical community. Trump has said he plans to announce his choice next week.

A second Trump adviser said that while Barry has unquestionably backed Hardiman, her support has not been determinative: “I don’t think it is fair to say the only reason he’s got juice on the list is because of her.”

A third official who’s been involved in the process said winning support from Trump’s family has been one of the key elements of the search.

Barry, 79, is a well-respected judge who was first appointed to a federal district court more than three decades ago by President Ronald Reagan. President Bill Clinton elevated her to the appeals court in 1999, and she assumed senior status there in 2011. Hardiman joined the 3rd Circuit in 2007.

“They are regularly sitting together, deciding cases together, participating together in oral arguments,” said appellate lawyer Matthew Stiegler, who also writes a blog about the 3rd Circuit.

Stiegler is among those who see Barry’s hidden hand behind the steady ascent of Hardiman, who was among the lesser-known judges under consideration.

“Judge Gorsuch is a judge who was on a lot of conservative radar screens a year ago, and I don’t know if the same could necessarily be said of Judge Hardiman,” he said. Of Hardiman’s new place on the Supreme Court short list, he added: “I think one good explanation for that is that [Trump’s] sister regards him very, very highly.”

The idea that Trump’s sister — who was attacked by Sen. Ted Cruz during the 2016 primaries as “a radical pro-abortion extremist” — is among the president’s judicial counselors makes some Republicans nervous. Even if they’re happy with the finalists he is currently considering, they don’t view her as a reliably conservative judge.

“I’m hoping she’s not part of the team making the decision,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network, a group that plans to spend millions of dollars getting Trump’s choice confirmed.

Yet Severino said she’d be satisfied if Hardiman is Trump’s pick. “There are no wrong answers among the people he’s choosing between,” she said. “If she wants to throw in ‘Tom Hardiman is a wonderful colleague,’ fine.”

Gwenda Blair, a Trump biographer who interviewed both Barry and Trump in the early 1990s, said the two siblings “seemed close” and called Barry “very solid, feet on the ground — nothing like him.”

“He certainly seemed to respect her,” Blair added, noting Trump would point out her judgeship with “great pride.”

Hardiman has plenty of conservative and legal credentials. He won over gun-rights supporters with a notable 2013 dissent about handgun permits. Leonard Leo, who’s advised Trump on his Supreme Court selection, told POLITICO earlier this week that Hardiman is “an extraordinarily talented and smart jurist” who has “a very direct and understandable writing style.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has threatened to block any Trump Supreme Court pick he doesn’t like. He voted to confirm Hardiman, who was elevated to the appeals court in a 95-0 vote. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, also voted in favor of confirming him.

Gorsuch was confirmed by a voice vote. In contrast, Pryor was confirmed in a contentious 53-45 roll call.

While Gorsuch has the traditional Supreme Court pedigree — a clerk for two justices, Harvard Law School, a stint at the Justice Department, service as a federal appellate judge — Hardiman has a more unusual path that could appeal to Trump’s more populist streak.

It has been widely reported that Hardiman was the first in his family to go to college, at Notre Dame, and his law degree is from Georgetown, not Yale or Harvard, as is typical for the court. He also drove a taxicab to help put himself through school.

“He loves a gripping personal story,” one of the people involved in the court search said of Trump.