Donald Trump will announce his Supreme Court pick next week

Democrats have promised to refuse the vote if the president doesn't pick a mainstream candidate

Activists stage an anti-Trump protest in front of the U.S. Supreme Court January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty)

Donald Trump has narrowed his list for the Supreme Court nomination and will announce his decision next week. The finalists include Neil Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman and William Pryor, who were all appointed to their current posts by former President George W Bush.

Last year, Democrats promised to refuse President Trump’s pick as a response to Republicans who ignored President Barack Obama’s selection following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York recently suggested that Democrats would permanently leave the seat open if President Trump picked far-right leaning candidate, the New York Times reports.

Judge Gorsuch, 49, presides over the US Court of Appeals in Denver and is considered the frontrunner in the race, CBS News reports. In the past, he’s worked in the Justice Department for President George W Bush. If he’s chosen by President Trump he’d be the youngest pick in over two decades.

He attended Harvard Law and was named a Marshall Scholar at the university.

Judge Hardiman, 51, presides over the US District Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania and serves the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals. He was nominated to his position by George W Bush.

The Massachusetts-native is a graduate of Notre Dame and Georgetown University Law School and a colleague of President Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry. “He’s conservative, but not wildly so,” an anonymous law professor at the University of Pittsburgh told the Post-Gazette, That makes him confirmable.”

President Trump’s third option is Judge William Pryor, who serves the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Alabama. In the past, Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on his nomination.

The 54-year-old judge graduated from Northeast Louisiana University and Tulane University Law School. He eventually became Alabama’s attorney general, infamous for removing a justice who refused to follow a court order to remove a Ten Commandments from a state building, Scotusblog reports.

At one point in his career he called Roe v Wade the “worst abomination” in the history of constitutional law. Interestingly enough, he joined his colleagues in 2011 ruling to protect transgender rights in the workplace, a move that might have jeopardized his chances to win President Trump’s favor.