Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court judge in Washington, is seen by some legal experts as the front-runner on President Donald Trump's list of contenders to fill an imminent vacancy on the US Supreme Court.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's announcement yesterday that he will retire at the end of July gives Trump his second opportunity to deepen his imprint on the US nation's highest court after restoring its 5-4 conservative majority last year with the selection of Neil Gorsuch.
Trump says he has a list of 25 people to consider as US Supreme Court nominees | https://t.co/75HIZDXpn0 pic.twitter.com/9LOPHvI1Cf
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 28, 2018
Trump yesterday said he had a 25-person list from which he has said he will choose a nominee.
Here are the top five contenders on the list for the lifetime appointment.
Any nominee will be subject to US Senate confirmation.
Brett Kavanaugh
Maryland US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Kavanaugh, 53, is at or near the top of Trump's list of possible nominees, said a person familiar with the White House selection process.
Kavanaugh was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003 by Republican President George W Bush.
Contentious confirmation hearings in the Senate delayed his confirmation until 2006.
Kavanaugh worked for Bush during the recount of the 2000 presidential election results.
He then headed the administration's search for potential judicial nominees.
Prior to that, he helped draft the 'Starr report' recommending the impeachment of Democratic President Bill Clinton.
In a high-profile decision, Kavanaugh authored an opinion that said the design of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to check abusive lending businesses, was unconstitutional and its director could be removed by the president.
Amy Coney Barrett
Indiana 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Trump in May 2017 appointed Barrett to the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. She was confirmed by the Senate in October 2017.
She was most recently a professor at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana.
During one of her committee confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats questioned Barrett about her Catholicism and past writings in which she said Catholic judges were in a "legal bind" in cases related to abortion and the death penalty.
The questioning led the conservative group Judicial Crisis Network to produce a digital ad attacking the Democrats.
Thomas Hardiman
Pennsylvania 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals
Hardiman, 52, was appointed in 2007 to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia by then-President George W Bush.
Since then, Hardiman has drawn criticism from liberals for a dissenting opinion in a gun control case, which the Alliance for Justice legal advocacy group said suggested he would take an "exceptional broad view of the Second Amendment" to the US Constitution, which gives Americans the right to keep and bear firearms.
Raymond Kethledge
Michigan 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Kethledge, 51, was named by Bush in 2006 to the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and confirmed in 2008. Prior to that, he spent most of his career in private practice.
One Kethledge ruling that gained attention was against the US Internal Revenue Service in a case brought by conservative Tea Party groups that said the agency had targeted them because of their political views.
Amul Thapar
Kentucky 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals
Thapar, 49, is a judge on the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, nominated by Trump and confirmed in May 2017. He was previously a judge on the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Thapar is best known for sentencing in 2014 an 84-year-old nun to three years in prison for breaking into a Tennessee military facility used to store enriched uranium for nuclear bombs.
The nun was convicted along with two other anti-nuclear activists.
