David M Jackson, and Richard Wolf

USA TODAY

Ahead of an afternoon meeting with Senate leaders, President Trump told reporters Tuesday he likely will nominate a new Supreme Court justice next week.

Trump's upcoming nomination to replace Justice Antonin Scalia will be the topic of his session with Senate leaders from both parties. Scalia's death in February made the Supreme Court a major issue in the presidential election and led to a Senate deadlock over President Obama's nomination of federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland to fill the post.

"We have a number of outstanding candidates," Trump said. "We'll announce it sometime next week."

Trump invited Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein to the White House to discuss the vacancy. "I appreciate the president soliciting our advice on this important matter,” McConnell said.

The Judiciary Committee eventually will conduct hearings on Trump's nominee, most likely in March.

From an initial list of 21 potential nominees, Trump appears to be looking seriously at these three federal appeals court judges:



• Neil Gorsuch, Colorado, 10th Circuit: At 49 the youngest of the group, Gorsuch is the most natural replacement among them for the late Justice Antonin Scalia. He is a strict adherent of "originalism," Scalia’s belief that the Constitution should be interpreted based on the intent of the Founders. He also is a distinctive writer, as Scalia was.

Gorsuch has the type of academic credentials common to high court justices: Columbia, Harvard Law, even Oxford. He clerked for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, then practiced law in Washington and did a stint at the Justice Department.



• William Pryor, Alabama, 11th Circuit: He’s been the conservatives’ justice-in-waiting for years, and at 54, the former Alabama attorney general comes straight out of central casting. Likely in his corner: U.S. attorney general-designate Jeff Sessions, who preceded Pryor as Alabama’s top law enforcement official.

But Pryor is controversial: He once criticized the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion, as “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.”

• Thomas Hardiman, Pennsylvania, 3rd Circuit: A dark horse among the finalists, Hardiman, 51, isn’t unfamiliar to Trump. He sits on the same U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit as the president’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry.

Hardiman’s career as a judge is one of law and order. He has maintained a solidly conservative record on issues involving guns, searches, police officers and prison guards – more so than Scalia, who often sided with criminal defendants against overzealous prosecutors. In that sense, Hardiman is much like Justice Samuel Alito, who came from the same appeals court.

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