Trump's Supreme Court justice shortlist narrows further
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:
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.
