A federal judge with deep Louisiana roots who is considered on Donald Trump’s short list for a Supreme Court nomination met with the president the weekend before his inauguration, according to a news report.
The USA Today Network of Louisiana reports William H. Pryor, a University of Louisiana at Monroe and Tulane University graduate, is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Alabama. One of his daughters graduated from LSU last spring. Pryor is the brother-in-law of Monroe hotel developer James Moore Jr.
Pryor met with Trump on Jan. 14 in New York, according to The Associated Press, which also previously reported that Trump compiled a list of 21 potential Supreme Court nominees last year, but hinted then that Pryor and another federal Judge Diane Sykes of Wisconsin were his two favorites.
The president said he will announce a nominee within the first two weeks of his presidency. Pryor, 54, is considered a conservative with views Trump has said are important to him when he chooses a nominee. Among them: Calling the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion the “worst abomination of constitutional law in our history”; voting against the Obamacare contraceptive mandate; and voting to uphold a strict voter ID law.
Pryor was appointed to the federal bench in 2004 by former President George W. Bush. Before that he served as Alabama’s attorney general from 1997 to 2004. Former President Barack Obama also appointed Pryor to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
