How Trump Chose His Supreme Court Nominee

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/us/politics/neil-gorsuch-trump-supreme-court-nominee.html

Version 0 of 1.

WASHINGTON — Judge Neil M. Gorsuch’s road to a Supreme Court nomination included stops at a fancy law firm conference room, the dreary basement of a government office building, President Trump’s gilded penthouse in Trump Tower, the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom and a ride on a military jet.

Although his name did not even appear on Mr. Trump’s first list of 11 potential nominees, Judge Gorsuch was the last person standing in a selection process that in some ways began last year, when as a candidate Mr. Trump took the unusual step of releasing the names of those he would consider for the court. The process, described in interviews with White House and transition officials and others involved, ended last Tuesday night, with the president’s announcement that he had found a judge who was “as good as it gets.”

Mr. Trump’s lists — the second one added 10 names, including that of Judge Gorsuch — leaned on recommendations from two conservative groups, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation. Both lists were compiled by Donald F. McGahn, Mr. Trump’s longtime election lawyer and now the White House counsel.

Judge Gorsuch was well known in conservative circles, but his stellar academic credentials — which include degrees from Columbia, Harvard and Oxford — may have worked against him at first, an official said, as the initial list had an anti-establishment theme. His body of judicial work and other writing was substantial and warranted careful review, which took time. And there was a concern about subjecting him to early “scrutiny and attacks” should liberal groups “unleash the hounds.”

Mr. Trump told aides that he wanted “the absolute best person,” one who resembled Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat has been vacant since his death last February. Mr. Trump, who mentioned how important the next justice was to Republican voters, according to exit poll data, said he wanted someone who was “not weak,” an adviser said.

Mr. Trump also said he wanted to avoid what he called the mistaken appointments of other Republican presidents — namely Justice David H. Souter, who drifted left, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

By early January, officials on Mr. Trump’s transition team had whittled the campaign’s lists down to seven finalists. They were invited to Washington and faced two sets of probing interviews.

Aides had read everything the finalists had written. In Judge Gorsuch’s case, that meant a trip to New York to obtain copies of student newspapers he had contributed to as a student at Columbia.

On Jan. 5, Judge Gorsuch met with Mr. McGahn in a conference room at Jones Day, Mr. McGahn’s law firm. The meeting was for “personal vetting,” to make sure there was nothing embarrassing in Judge Gorsuch’s background.

Later that day, Judge Gorsuch was driven to the Trump campaign’s transition office. In a basement room, under florescent lights and with bags of cookies and candy bars in the corner, Judge Gorsuch was grilled by five members of the Trump team: Vice President-elect Mike Pence; Reince Priebus, now the White House chief of staff; Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist; Mark Paoletta, now Mr. Pence’s counsel; and Mr. McGahn.

With a six-page memo on Judge Gorsuch’s writing prepared by Mr. McGahn in front of them, the five men asked him about his writings and the role of a judge.

“We’ve never talked to him about abortion,” a White House official said. “There was no discussion about specific cases or outcomes.”

Mr. Pence, the official said, was particularly engaged in the selection process.

The six other finalists all went through a similar two-step interview in Washington.

Four, like Judge Gorsuch, served on federal appeals courts: Judges Thomas M. Hardiman, William H. Pryor Jr., Diane S. Sykes and Raymond M. Kethledge. The others were Judge Amul R. Thapar, of a Federal District Court in Kentucky, and Justice Don R. Willett of the Texas Supreme Court.

With the exception of Justice Willett, all had already undergone F.B.I. background checks and Senate confirmations.

“People loved Tom Hardiman,” an official said. “He was super personable. Pryor has done more for the cause than anyone else in the country. But the politics are really tough.”

Judge Pryor had taken strong stands against gay rights and abortion, calling Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.”

Judge Gorsuch emerged from the interviews as a strong contender, partly because of his intellectual polish and partly because of support from other candidates.

“If not you, who?” they were asked, an official said. “Most of them said Gorsuch. Kethledge went on about him for three or four minutes.”

Judge Gorsuch clinched his spot in a meeting at Trump Tower on Jan. 14 with Mr. Trump and Mr. McGahn. Judge Gorsuch, who had represented corporate titans as a lawyer in private practice, hit it off with the president.

That same day, Mr. Trump and Mr. McGahn also interviewed two other finalists, Judges Hardiman and Pryor. Each of the three meetings lasted from 30 to 45 minutes. (The only other finalist interviewed by Mr. Trump was Judge Thapar, at the White House.)

After the interviews in New York, Mr. Trump asked his lawyer for his recommendation, a White House official recalled. Mr. McGahn said that the clear choice was Judge Gorsuch.

Mr. Trump called Judge Gorsuch in Colorado with the good news last Monday, and soon he and his wife, Louise, took off on a military jet from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, headed to Andrews Air Force Base. Mr. McGahn called the other judges the next day.

On Tuesday, Judge Gorsuch was smuggled into the White House, where aides had him wait in the Lincoln Bedroom before his prime-time appearance with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump’s team is already looking down the road, weighing the choices should Justice Anthony M. Kennedy decide to step down. Judge Kethledge would be a leading candidate, an official said, and so would Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the Federal Appeals Court in Washington.

Both judges, like Judge Gorsuch, once served as law clerks to Justice Kennedy.