After starting with a list of 21 possible names to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, President Trump is further narrowing his choices.
Mr. Trump announced in a tweet early Wednesday that he would be naming his Supreme Court pick next week:
I will be making my Supreme Court pick on Thursday of next week. Thank you!
As CBS News’ Jan Crawford reports, the person tapped by Mr. Trump to sit on the bench of the nation’s highest court could be one of three people: federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch, the front-runner in the race, Alabama-based appeals court Judge William Pryor, and Pennsylvania-based Judge Thomas Hardiman.
To some conservatives, picking Gorsuch — a highly regarded judge and former Washington, D. C., lawyer who easily passed through the confirmation process to sit on a federal appeals court — would fall short of their expectations to replace Scalia.
Instead, some hardliners would like to see Pryor, a judge who holds more conservative views on contentious issues like abortion, named to the bench.
But Senate Republicans worry that Democrats could stall Pryor’s confirmation — during his lower court nomination, Democrats filibustered because of his stance on Roe v. Wade.
The third contender, Hardiman, is believed to be a solid conservative pick, according to CBS’ Crawford, but he is a lesser-known quantity.
