Thomas Hardiman

Thomas Michael Hardiman (born 8 July 1965) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Judicial and Executive Nominations (November 14, 2006)
Judicial and Executive Nominations (November 14, 2006)


 * I have no hesitation in applying a law regardless of what I might think about it; I think any good judge recognizes his or her place in our constitutional government, and that place is not to upset the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives. So, I do not have any compunction about following the law as written by Congress.


 * Quite honestly, we get one new civil case every business day of the year. We spend so much of our time reading the law and interpreting the law, that that does not leave much time for consideration of whether the law is prudent or might be written in a better way. I spend all of my time, with the assistance of my law clerks, trying to read the law and interpret it and apply it to the facts presented in any particular case. So I cannot say that I have spent much time at all considering the propriety of the laws that I have had occasion to interpret.


 * It has helped me keep in mind all times that not all lawyers always work in the best interests of their clients. It is a very delicate situation. If a lawyer does not appear to the judge to be working in the best interest of the clients, I think the way to deal with that is to have hearings on the record and hope that the parties might appear.Sometimes from the bench, or sometimes in a conference on the record, the court is in a position to give guidance that not only is for the ears of the attorney, but may also be for the ears of the litigant, him or herself.