11th Circuit Court of Appeals judge William Pryor is a favorite among constitutional conservatives to fill the vacant Supreme Court spot. | AP Photo A closer look at Trump’s potential Supreme Court nominees

President Donald Trump’s search for a nominee to replace late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has narrowed to three finalists, according to people familiar with the search process, with Trump himself saying the announcement will come next week.

Here’s a look at the leading contenders for the Supreme Court nod:


Neil Gorsuch, 49

Judge, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals

Gorsuch is unusual on a list that has been mostly devoid of candidates with ties to the coastal elite. The clerk to Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy is a Columbia, Harvard and Oxford graduate who spent a decade in private practice in Washington before taking a top Justice Department job. He was quickly confirmed to the 10th Circuit after being nominated by President George W. Bush in 2006.

While Gorsuch has more of a Washington resume than other Trump finalists, his family’s experience in the city was a searing one.

Gorsuch’s mother, Anne Burford Gorsuch, ran the Environmental Protection Agency at the outset of the Reagan administration. She was forced to resign in 1983, facing a criminal investigation and a House contempt of Congress citation over records related to alleged political favoritism in toxic-waste cleanups. She maintained her innocence and was never charged.

William Pryor, 54

Judge, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals

Pryor is a standout favorite among many constitutional conservatives for his uncompromising, often caustic criticism of the leading liberal Supreme Court decisions. He has called Roe v. Wade, the 1973 abortion rights ruling, “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.” As an outspoken elected attorney general of Alabama, he often blasted federal judges.

“The courts have imposed results on a wide range of issues, including racial quotas, school prayer, abortion and homosexual rights. Those issues belong in Congress and the state legislature,” he wrote in a 1997 Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Pryor made it onto the 11th Circuit in 2004 via a rare recess appointment from President George W. Bush after Senate Democrats blocked a vote on Pryor’s nomination for nearly a year. He was confirmed on a 53-45 vote in 2005 as part of the so-called “Gang of 13” deal that allowed approval of several stalled Bush judicial nominees but preserved the right to filibuster.

While Pryor’s record as an appeals court judge has been staunchly conservative, he surprised many legal observers in 2011 by joining a decision holding that some discrimination against transgender individuals is prohibited by constitutional doctrine forbidding sex discrimination.

Thomas Hardiman, 51

Judge, 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals

Hardiman spent about three years as a federal judge in Pittsburgh before being nominated to the 3rd Circuit in 2006. He's one of the lesser-known judges that Trump has considered.

A 2007 ruling Hardiman wrote upheld the constitutionality of strip searches of jail prisoners regardless of how minor the offense of which they were accused. The Supreme Court later endorsed his decision, 5-4.

While Hardiman has backed First Amendment rights in the context of political donations, he took a narrower view in a 2010 suit over an arrest for videotaping a police officer during a traffic stop, holding that there was no clearly established First Amendment right to record such an event.

Hardiman won favor with gun rights advocates for a 2013 dissent that said New Jersey was violating the Second Amendment to the Constitution by requiring those seeking to carry a handgun to demonstrate a “justifiable need” for such a permit.

Trump may be able to get some special insights into Hardiman, since the president's sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, serves on the same appeals court. Hardiman graduated from Notre Dame and went to law school at Georgetown. His fans have noted that he drove a taxi to support himself while earning his law degree.

