Replacing O'Connor...With Who???

My post below on Supreme Court appointments made me think about the situation that will arise if Sandra Day O'Connor does retire during the next four years. If so, President Bush will be faced with a vacancy that he will almost certainly fill with a female appointee. Wondering who Bush might elevate from the federal bench, I did some searching on the "The Federal Judges Biographical Database" to see the pool of judges from which he might be making nominations. I limited my search to Circuit Court of Appeals judges because the past six Supreme Court nominees have been elevated from the one of the Circuit Courts of Appeals. In order to find an appointee who was not a Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, you have to go back to (you guessed it) Justice O'Connor. (One should note, however, that Justice Souter had not even been a First Circuit judge for six months when President George H.W. Bush elevated him to the Supreme Court).

The results of my work:

Ronald Reagan appointed six female Court of Appeals judges. Two have died, one has senior status, and one is too old for Supreme Court consideration. The others are Judge Edith Jones of the Fifth Circuit, 55, and Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, 58, of the Tenth Circuit.

George H.W. Bush appointed seven female Court Court of Appeals judges. Two are too old for Supreme Court consideration. Only one is under 55 (Judge Karen T. Williams of the Fourth Circuit). Four others might be considered if the President were willing to appoint a new judge in her early 60s.

Bill Clinton appointed twenty female Court of Appeals judges. One or more might be somewhat conservative, but it remains doubtful that more than one or two of these judges would be even close to being ideologically in line with the President.

In his first term, George W. Bush appointed eight female Court of Appeals judges. One was appointed to the Federal Circuit, and thus would be an unlikely candidate for elevation. The other seven are all potential appointees. (Six of the seven are under 55 years of age).

Adding this up, this leaves us with eight female judges who are 55 or younger (not including the judge on the Federal Circuit). If we include judges from the age of 56 through 63, the number increases to fourteen.

If the president desired to appoint someone 55 years of age or younger (and supposing no Clinton appointees would be acceptable), his list would include the following judges:

Judge Edith Jones - Fifth Circuit
Judge Karen T. Williams - Fourth Circuit
Judge Maria Consuelo Callahan - Ninth Circuit
Judge Deborah L. Cook - Sixth Circuit
Judge Allyson Kay Duncan - Fourth Circuit
Judge Julia Smith Gibbon - Sixth Circuit
Judge Rena Raggi - Second Circuit
Judge Diane S. Sykes - Seventh Circuit

The possibilities, if you include judges up to the age of 63, would include the additional judges:
Judge Deanell Reece Tacha - Tenth Circuit
Judge Alice Moore Batchelder - Sixth Circuit
Judge Susan Harrell Black - Eleventh Circuit
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson - DC Circuit
Judge Pamela Ann Rymer - Ninth Circuit
Judge Edith Brown Clement - Fifth Circuit

Without researching these judge's records, it remains impossible to make any judgments about their potential as Supreme Court appointees. (As far as I know, Judge Edith Jones has been the only one to face significant scrutiny.) If President Bush does choose to appoint a Circuit Court of Appeals judge to fill a future O'Connor vacancy, however, he should have a fine set of judges from which to choose.