joan, take us through some of the names. who are you keeping your eye on. a couple of people, jake. and i ll tell you that not only will i mention some names, i ll tell you that a whole new political campaign has been unleashed. many of these people have friends who are right now trying to get to anybody connected to donald trump or don mcgahn in the white house, president trump s children, leonard leo with the federalist society and here are who appear right now to be the leading contenders. first two are former law clerks to justice kennedy. brett cavanaugh from the d.c. circuit here in town. we also have a ray kethledge and on the sixth circuit, from michigan. we also have a woman by the name of amy barrett, a former notre dame professor on the seventh and circuit. and to circle back to my idea of connections, a man who mitch
the list. just recently he dissented when his court cleared the way for an undocumented teen to get an abortion. another one, amy barrett, she was at notre dame. during her confirmationearing, you could see that the democrats were really trying to get at her views of abortion. and she even got into a little bit of a spat with senator diane feinstein on religion. some people said that feinstein was looking for a litmus test there. another issue, the second amendment. tom hardiman is on this list. he s not one of the favorites of the federalist society, but donald trump really liked meeting him when he was a runnerup for the gorsuch seat. he has these opinions on second amendment, so that could come up in his hearings. another former kennedy clerk is ray kethledge. he wrote a digit privacy case that just got over turned.
immigrant. he was in dissent. another one is ray kethledge and he has a case on digital privacy. he was just reversed at the court by roberts and the liberals. and then there is thomas hardiman and i don t think they like him as much as the president. he was a runner upfor gore such s seat and he has this family story, no ivy leagues, drove a cab for a while. he served on the bench with trump s sister. so he could be an interesting pick. maybe not as conservative as some of the federalist site people and then amy barrett put on the second circuit and she was at notre dame and what is interesting about her is that the junior confirmation hearing, she had strong writings in the past on religion and that bothered feinstein. so that could end up being a fight. and then the two last ones, amul
that s what rudy giuliani said recently in the case. tonight it appears the president and his legal team are taking an even more aggressive stance regarding the russia investigation. meantime president trump now just three days away from announcing a decision that could well define his legacy. he is about to reveal his pick to fill that vacancy on the supreme court. if you tune in monday at 9:00, i think you re going to be extremely happy. right? and they re all great. they re all great. a source familiar with the selection process tells nbc news the president is most focused on these candidates. brett kavanaugh, amy coney barrett, and ray kethledge. there are reports that kavanaugh may have the inside track. the president will be flying to europe on wednesday for an annual summit with leaders, the
the ages of 45-55. the other front runner, we call him the other front runner because i get a sense that he is just as much in the mix as kavanaugh, but perhaps not quite as much but pretty much up there, it is ray kethledge who is an appellate judge and was appointed a number of years ago by president bush, like kavanaugh was and he clerked for justice kennedy like kavanaugh. 51 years old, an alumnus of the university of michigan. that takes him out of the usual harvard or yale pedigree. his just digsal record is not as comprehensive as that of kavanaugh. and i think that kavanaugh has had some 300 opinions and two-thirds of those have to do with the federal government and judge amy coney barrett in the running still, the president really likes her. he spoke with her in the interview. he would like to appoint her to the court. but he is getting a lot of blowback from the democrats on