Trump’s potential replacements for Kavanaugh
If Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh fails to win enough votes for confirmation in the Senate, President Trump is expected to turn to one of the other judges he was considering before choosing Kavanaugh. They include:
• Judge Thomas Hardiman, 53, a former Waltham cab driver who was Trump’s runner-up choice to Justice Neil Gorsuch for the first seat open during Trump’s presidency. Hardiman, now of Pennsylvania, has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit since George W. Bush appointed him in 2007. The Georgetown Law grad is a Massachusetts native, and has the support of Trump’s sister Maryanne Trump Barry, who also sits on the 3rd Circuit bench.
• Judge Amy Coney Barrett has served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit since October 2017. Barrett clerked for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after graduating from Notre Dame University Law School. At 46, she would be the youngest judge on the court, and the fifth woman to ever serve on the high court. Barrett is known as a devout Catholic whose confirmation hearing last year made headlines when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein criticized her for leaning too heavily on her faith, infamously saying, “The dogma lives loudly within you.”
• Judge Raymond Kethledge, 51, has served on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for a decade. Kethledge clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose retirement opened this seat up. The native Michigander, who attended University of Michigan Law, is known as a consistent conservative constitutional originalist.
• U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, currently sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and suggested yesterday during the hearing that he intends to vote for Kavanaugh, though he could stand to benefit if Kavanaugh goes down. Lee, the only current lawmaker whom Trump was reported to consider before choosing Kavanaugh, attended Brigham Young University Law before clerking for Samuel Alito, who now is a Supreme Court justice. Lee, 47, is a former federal prosecutor who was elected to the Senate in 2010, aligned with the conservative Tea Party movement.