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The Four SCOTUS Candidates


BUFORDGAWOLVES

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By 
Brent Kendall and
 
Jess Bravin
Updated July 8, 2018 10:14 p.m. ET
 

WASHINGTON—As the clock ticks on President Donald Trump’s choice for a Supreme Court vacancy, each of the four people under close consideration could move the court in a more conservative direction for decades.

“Republicans are holding four lottery tickets, and all of them are winners,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said Sunday in a Fox News interview.

Here’s a look at the top contenders:

Brett Kavanaugh

Judge Kavanaugh is a favorite of the Republican legal establishment, including White House counsel Don McGahn. Following a clerkship with Justice Anthony Kennedy in 1994, he joined Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation, which ultimately led to President Bill Clinton’s impeachment by the House and acquittal by the Senate.

Brett Kavanaugh, left, being sworn in to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2006.
Brett Kavanaugh, left, being sworn in to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2006. PHOTO: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

During the George W. Bush administration, Judge Kavanaugh became a top deputy to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, helping select judicial nominees for their commitment to a conservative legal agenda.

When Judge Kavanaugh was nominated, Democrats suggested he was an ideological warrior rather than someone suited to be an impartial jurist. Republicans said the criticisms were unfounded. The Senate approved him, 57-36, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In his 12-year tenure, Judge Kavanaugh frequently has found that federal agencies went too far in regulation. In cases, he has taken issue with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

He was thrust into a legal controversy when the Trump administration sought to prevent an undocumented teenager in U.S. custody from receiving an abortion. He crafted an outcome that allowed the government to temporarily prevent the teenager from leaving detention to obtain an abortion, while also urging the government to transfer the girl to private custody so she could do as she wished.

The liberal-leaning D.C. Circuit, with more judges participating, reconsidered the case and ordered that the teen been released to terminate the pregnancy.

Mr. Trump has frequently disavowed decisions from the George W. Bush administration, and Judge Kavanaugh’s ties to it could affect his prospects, people involved in the search say.

Amy Coney Barrett

Judge Barrett has support from social conservatives because of her strong Roman Catholic faith and their belief that she may be part of an eventual overturning of Roe v. Wade. But those same reasons could make her confirmation battle the most contentious.

Amy Coney Barrett in an undated photo provided by Notre Dame.
Amy Coney Barrett in an undated photo provided by Notre Dame. PHOTO: MATT CASHORE/UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Judge Barrett, a former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia, has a long tenure as a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. She became a judge eight months ago after Mr. Trump tapped her for the Chicago-based Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Barrett has written academic articles on topics that are sure to be central to Senate consideration: abortion rights, religion and the law, and respect for Supreme Court precedent.

In 2013, then-Professor Barrett voiced support for Supreme Court justices voting to overturn past precedent when they fundamentally disagreed with it.

For several years at Notre Dame, she was a member of University Faculty for Life, a group founded “to promote research, dialogue and publication by faculty who respect the value of human life from conception to natural death.”

Judge Barrett has written and spoken favorably Justice Scalia’s method of judging, including his close attention to the texts of statutes as written and support for originalism, or interpreting the Constitution according to its perceived original meaning.

Democratic senators at her confirmation hearings last year asked whether she would be able to separate her religious beliefs from her duty of impartiality as a judge. She said she could.

 
Thomas Hardiman

Judge Hardiman, who serves on the Philadelphia-based Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was the runner-up to Justice Neil Gorsuch last year. He is from Waltham, Mass., where his father ran a transportation company. Judge Hardiman drove a cab from his teenage years through law school and was the first in his family to graduate from college.

Thomas Hardiman in Washington in 2016.
Thomas Hardiman in Washington in 2016.PHOTO: CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

He has written opinions and dissents critical of laws limiting access to weapons, suggesting he could be influential in re-examining the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment doctrine, which in 2008 recognized a right to keep handguns in the home for self-defense.

Judge Hardiman has shown sympathy toward arguments that secular laws sometimes must yield to religious objections. He sided with the view that for-profit corporations could invoke religious faith to avoid providing contraceptive coverage to women employees otherwise entitled to the benefit under Affordable Care Act regulations. The Supreme Court adopted that view in a 2014 case.

In 2010, Judge Hardiman ruled that jails can strip-search every arrestee police bring them, a decision the Supreme Court affirmed in 2012—in a 5-4 opinion written by Justice Kennedy.

During and after law school at Georgetown University, when he joined the white-shoe firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, he worked pro bono at Ayuda Inc., a legal clinic that offered services to low-income immigrants.

 

He has served on the Third Circuit with Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, the president’s sister.

Raymond Kethledge

A longtime Michigan resident, Judge Kethledge has served for a decade on the Cincinnati-based Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with a record his supporters say is reminiscent of Justice Gorsuch’s. He spent about a decade in private practice, including a stint at Ford Motor Co.

Raymond Kethledge on Capitol Hill in 2008.
Raymond Kethledge on Capitol Hill in 2008.PHOTO: C-SPAN VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

After law school at the University of Michigan, he served as a law clerk for Justice Kennedy and spent more than two years as a staffer for Sen. Spencer Abraham, a Michigan Republican.

In 2016, Judge Kethledge wrote a decision in favor of a group of tea-party conservatives that alleged it had been unfavorably targeted by the Internal Revenue Service. The ruling ordered the IRS to turn over lists of organizations that may have been singled out for extra scrutiny because of their political affiliations.

Judge Kethledge has been sympathetic to claims by religious groups that they face inappropriate interference from the federal government. He was part of a panel that rejected the Labor Department’s case against an Ohio church that operated a restaurant using unpaid volunteers.

A hunter and handgun owner, Judge Kethledge has expressed legal views that favor strong guns rights. He also has voiced skepticism of campaign finance restrictions on the grounds that they burden free speech.

Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com and Jess Bravin at jess.bravin@wsj.com

Appeared in the July 9, 2018, print edition as 'Four Judges Make Short List.'

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16 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

Trump should pick whoever will overturn Roe v Wade, ban affirmative action, make gay marriage illegal again, and give Christians and Catholics the freedom to use their religion as a driving factor to make decisions best suited for them, and their place of business. 

 

Get your popcorn ready for the explosion of heads tonight 

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6 minutes ago, BUFORDGAWOLVES said:

Hardiman, problem solver. I like the best, working man roots.

I like the chick also. I don’t think Roe v. Wade will ever be overturned with her on. 

BGW

It says she is in favor of overturning roe v. Wade. Catholic upbringing. Affiliation with Notre Dame

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3 minutes ago, Drummer61 said:

That Catholic affiliation with ND means very little anymore as ND allowed nobama, who is pro abortion, speak at ND.....ND,IMO, no longer stands for honest Catholic values....

I think shes old enough to have her values. I agree having Obama speak at ND really turned me off on ND. 

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1 hour ago, HSFBfan said:

I think shes old enough to have her values. I agree having Obama speak at ND really turned me off on ND. 

Terrible. The way Muslims treat Catholics over time you would think they would not have even let him on campus. The ND President should of stood up and said not just no, but HELL NO!!! 

Hussein Osama I mean Obama should go back to Kenya where he belongs 

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1 hour ago, HSFBfan said:

I said that last night 

So, you were first!

Well, Got Dammit!

You know I live in a crackhouse with a family of 12, we spoon in winter time for warmth. 

An aside, I did post this thread due to interest in said subject so forgive me for not scouring the forum and footnoting your “alleged” comment. LAST night!

Carry the fook on,

BGW

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26 minutes ago, BUFORDGAWOLVES said:

So, you were first!

Well, Got Dammit!

You know I live in a crackhouse with a family of 12, we spoon in winter time for warmth. 

An aside, I did post this thread due to interest in said subject so forgive me for not scouring the forum and footnoting your “alleged” comment. LAST night!

Carry the fook on,

BGW

Lmaoooooo you are forgiven for not checking all comments lol

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