The Daily Scotulbutt: A Growing Shortlist?

[WSJ Law Blog]

We were sort of excited yesterday when we blogged that the search to replace Justice David Souter may have been focusing on two candidates, Elana Kagan and Diane Wood. It’s not that we prefer Kagan or Wood over anyone else, of course, just that we liked the certainty, the fact that things finally started coming into focus.

Perhaps we should scratch that notion. The latest word comes courtesy of the L.A. Daily Journal, which reports Friday that the White House is, in fact, giving close scrutiny to two other candiates, Second Circuit judge Sonia Sotomayor (pictured) — she who ended the baseball strike back in 1995, and California Supreme Court justice Carlos Moreno.

“I’m very honored to be on what people term to be the ’shortlist,’” Moreno is quoted in the article.

According to the LADJ, Sotomayor, the other leading Hispanic candidate, is rumored to be meeting with President Barack Obama at Camp David this weekend, according to a Washington lobbyist.

Hispanic groups met with White House officials Thursday to discuss the vacancy, said Nan Aron, president of the Washington-based liberal advocacy group Alliance For Justice, which will support whomever Obama nominates. Aron said the Hispanic groups felt Thursday’s event, which she didn’t attend, had been a “good meeting.”

The White House refused to comment on the vetting process.

At this point, the race seems to be fairly wide open, though the Intrade Prediction Markets have Judge Wood as the favorite, followed closely by Kagan. Michigan Governor and Canadian-born Jennifer Granholm and Sotomayor are third and fourth, respectively.