Former Waltham Cab Driver Could Be Next US Supreme Court Justice

WALTHAM, MA — One of the people on the list of 25 people President Donald Trump said he'd be picking from to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is a man who was born in Winchester and grew up in Waltham and drove a taxi for his dad's cab company here.

Thomas Hardiman grew up in the Watch City where his father, Bob, ran Waltham Central Square Taxi. In 1987 Hardiman, who is now a federal appeals court judge in Pennsylvania, drove a cab and worked as a dispatcher at his dad's company.

Hardiman was valedictorian of Waltham High School class of 1983 and the first in his Irish-Catholic family to graduate college. Not only did he graduate college, though, as it happened he finished University of Notre Dame and went on to get his law degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington.

Although Notre Dame is a fancy college, it's not considered Ivy League, so if he were appointed, he would be the only justice not to attend an Ivy League school.

Hardiman was one of the runners up when Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch last year to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Trump recently told supporters he was interested in finding a judge who would serve for more than 40 years in the seat. Hardiman is 52.

He was first appointed to serve on the federal district court by George W. Bush in 2003, after several years in private practice in Washington, D.C. and in Pittsburgh.

One person in his corner the first go-round was reportedly Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who serves with Hardiman on the federal appeals court.

Previously on Patch:

Waltham Native on Short List for Supreme Court Nominee

President Trump Passes Over Mass. Native for Supreme Court

Official Public Portrait of Hardiman by Roy Engelbrecht.