WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who counts his two Supreme Court appointments as among his greatest successes, last week issued a new list of 20 potential nominees to the court. There was no vacancy at the time, and the exercise seemed aimed at focusing attention on an issue that had helped secure his election in 2016.
With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, the list has become the subject of intense interest.
Among the front-runners is Thomas Hardiman, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, in Philadelphia.
Judge Hardiman, 55, of Fox Chapel, was a runner-up twice in less than two years in Mr. Trump’s selection process for a Supreme Court nominee.
In 2017, Judge Hardiman was one of two finalists to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Mr. Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch.
In 2018, Judge Hardiman was listed as one of the top four contenders to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. Mr. Trump chose Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
Judge Hardiman grew up in Waltham, Mass. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown Law. He worked in the Washington office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meager & Flom before moving to Pittsburgh in 1992 to join Cindrich & Titus.
Judge Hardiman later became a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Reed Smith LLP and served there until President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Western District of Pennsylvania and later to the 3rd Circuit.
He is married to the former Lori Zappala, a member of the prominent Democratic family that includes Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephen A. Zappala.
Mr. Trump now has about 40 potential nominees to choose among. Before listing the new candidates last week. He singled out three judges from earlier lists who are widely believed to remain front-runners: Judge Hardiman; Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago; and William H. Pryor Jr. of the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta.
The new list included three Republican senators: Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Over the nation’s history, it was not unusual for sitting senators to be named to the Supreme Court, though it has been almost half a century since a former senator sat on the court.
Mr. Hawley said last week that he had told the president he was not interested in the job. “My principal role in this process, this latest process, was to state where I will begin with judicial nominees, which is asking where they are on Roe vs. Wade,” he said, referring to the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.
“Roe v. Wade,” Mr. Hawley said, “is a window into a judge’s judicial philosophy.”
Mr. Cotton, for his part, made his position clear last week shortly after Mr. Trump spoke. “It’s time for Roe v. Wade to go,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Cruz, also writing on Twitter, said he was honored to be considered. He later said he was not interested.
The new list included lawyers who had worked at the White House and in the Justice Department, notably Noel J. Francisco, who recently stepped down as solicitor general, having defended many of Mr. Trump’s policies and programs before the justices; Paul D. Clement, who served as solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration; Steven Engel, a Justice Department official; and Kate Todd, a White House lawyer.
Mr. Trump promised that if another vacancy appeared on the Supreme Court, “My nominee will come from the names I have shared with the American public.”
The list also included a number of federal appeals court judges: Bridget Shelton Bade and Lawrence J.C. VanDyke of the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco; Stuart Kyle Duncan and James C. Ho of the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans; Allison Jones Rushing of the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va.; Gregory G. Katsas of the District of Columbia Circuit;Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit; and Peter J. Phipps of the Third Circuit.
All of his candidates, Mr. Trump said, were judicial conservatives in the mold of Justice Scalia and two current members of the court, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Mr. Trump’s lists, compiled with the help of conservative legal groups, have long been fluid. The first one, issued in May 2016, did not include Justice Gorsuch, Mr. Trump’s first appointee, who was first named on a second list issued that September.
Justice Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s second appointee, did not appear on either list and was not included until a third one was issued in 2017.
First Published September 19, 2020, 9:12pm
