These potential nominees for the Supreme Court are believed to be on President Obama’s short list:
- Srikanth Srinivasan, 48, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A former clerk to former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, he enjoyed unanimous bipartisan support when confirmed for the appeals court less than three years ago.
- Jacqueline Nguyen, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco. Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1965 and moved to the US as a child. She worked as an assistant US attorney and a California judge before Obama first tapped her for a federal court in California. In 2012, she won bipartisan confirmation by the Senate to the appeals court.
Srinivasan or Nguyen would be the first Asian-American Supreme Court justice if nominated and confirmed.
Srikanth “Sri” Srinivasan is the presumptive favorite to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.Reuters- Paul Watford, 48, an Obama appointee to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Watford is black and was a federal prosecutor and former clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Considered a moderate, he was confirmed by the Senate 61-34 in 2012.
- Merrick Garland, 63, chief judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. His name was floated in 2010 when Obama was nominating a successor to Justice John Paul Stevens. He is Harvard-educated and considered a judicial moderate.
- Jane Kelly, US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Kelly was confirmed unanimously and quickly to the St. Louis-based court in 2013. At the time, she earned praise from Sen. Charles Grassley, the Iowa Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee. She was a Harvard Law School classmate of President Obama.
With Post wires
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