Story Created:
May 14, 2009 at 12:28 AM EST
Story Updated:
May 14, 2009 at 12:28 AM EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is considering more than six contenders for the Supreme Court and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is on the list.
That list is dominated by women and Hispanics, including judges and leaders from own his administration who have never donned a judicial robe.
Also among those under consideration are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno is also under review by Obama.
Sources familiar with Obama's deliberations confirmed the names to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no candidates have been revealed by the White House. The confirmation amounts to the first time any name has been directly tied to Obama.
One official cautioned that Obama is considering other people who have not been publicly mentioned. And more names may be added as the administration considers a replacement for retiring Justice David Souter.
Most of the people confirmed as under consideration have been mentioned frequently as potential candidates. Moreno — the sole man on the known group of top candidates — is the newest name to emerge.
The president is widely expected to choose a woman for a Supreme Court that has nine members but only one female justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He is also under pressure from some Latino officials to name the nation's first Hispanic justice. Moreno and Sotomayor are Hispanic.
TIMEFRAME
Obama wants his nominee confirmed before the Senate recess in August, which means he would need to name one soon.
BASIC BIOS ON THOSE KNOWN TO BE UNDER CONSIDERATION
Granholm, a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general. She has been a fierce spokeswoman for her state's struggling auto industry and was a strong advocate for Obama during his presidential campaign.
Kagan, who stepped down as dean of Harvard Law School to become the nation's first female solicitor general. Like Obama, she has her law degree from Harvard and taught at the University of Chicago Law School. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and worked in the Clinton White House.
Moreno was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1998 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge and the Senate unanimously confirmed him. In 2001, he raised a few eyebrows when he gave up his lifetime federal judgeship to accept Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' nomination to the state's high court. Moreno is the only Democrat on the California Supreme Court and is widely regarded as its most liberal voice. Last year, he signed on to the court's 4-3 ruling that legalized gay marriage in the state. Voters later banned gay marriage in a ballot initiative.
Napolitano, who stepped down as Arizona's governor to join the administration and was quickly tested as homeland security chief when the swine flu outbreak hit.
Sotomayor, an appeals court judge and former New York prosecutor and private lawyer. President George H.W. Bush nominated her as a federal judge; Clinton nominated her to the appeals court.
Wood, an appeals court judge who has worked at the State Department, the Justice Department and in private practice. Like Obama, she taught at the University of Chicago Law School.
Associated Press writers David Espo, Philip Elliott, Paul Elias, Ben Evans, Chuck Babington and Lolita Baldor contributed to this report.
