Bork Called Front-Runner on List of 5 Court Nominees : White House Seeking Early Action on Powell Successor; Lengthy Proceedings Expected

Administration officials plan to give President Reagan on Monday a list of five potential successors to retiring Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., with appeals court judge Robert H. Bork the clear “odds-on front-runner,” a senior Administration official said Saturday.

The other names on the list, compiled by officials in the White House and Justice Department, include appeals court judges J. Clifford Wallace of San Diego, Patrick E. Higginbotham of Dallas and Richard A. Posner of Chicago.

The name of the fifth candidate could not immediately be determined, but speculation in legal and government circles has focused on Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a staunch Administration ally in Congress, or appeals court judge Frank H. Easterbrook of Chicago.

All but Bork are “second tier,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. All are considered conservatives.

Seek Action This Week

Administration officials say they will make a strong push to get a candidate named this week so that confirmation proceedings in the Senate--which promise to be lengthy and combative--can begin as soon as possible.

The court’s calendar for its term beginning in October includes an abortion case from Illinois, a school prayer case from New Jersey and two affirmative action cases, and the Administration is eager to have a new justice seated in time to consider them.

Before Powell’s surprise resignation Friday, legal experts had regarded the cases as posing only narrow questions on issues the court had largely settled, but now they could become vehicles for broad conservative rulings.

On each of these issues, the court has ruled contrary to the Administration’s position, with Powell providing a key vote for the majority.

Despite the Administration’s eagerness to expedite the process, senators from both parties cautioned Saturday that the Supreme Court probably will reconvene with only eight members--posing the likelihood of deadlocks on key issues.

‘This Will Take Longer’

“It’s going to take a long time, I’m sorry to say,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), an Administration supporter on the Judiciary Committee, which considers such nominations. “We ought to be able to have a nominee picked by the first Monday in October,” he said, but “this will take longer” because of the sensitivity of this appointment.

The vacancy “could shape the direction of the court into the next century,” said Judiciary Committee member Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), citing Powell’s role as a key, moderate swing vote between the conservative and liberal wings of the court.

Because the nominee could profoundly alter the court’s ideological balance, “the hearings are going to be more extensive than they have ever been,” Leahy predicted.

The Administration hopes--and its opponents fear--that the specter of a 4-4 court deadlock on many cases will put pressure on Senate Democrats to act before the new term begins, an aide to a senior Democratic senator said.

‘Can Slow It Down’

“I can’t picture the Democrats voting down a Bork,” considering his solid legal credentials, said one source close to several key Democratic senators. “But you don’t have to turn him down, you can slow it down.” If the vacancy can be prolonged past the Senate’s adjournment--currently scheduled for late October--and into the presidential election year, Democrats could then block a vote and say “let the people decide,” the source added.

Bork has been considered a front-runner for a high court seat since Reagan named him to the federal appellate court in the District of Columbia early in his first term. Friends say Bork was disappointed last year when he was passed over for the previous vacancy in favor of his appeals court colleague, Antonin Scalia.

Late last year, Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said in an interview that, despite their ideological differences, “I’d have to vote for him” if a Senate investigation found no problems in his background. Bork receives strong support from the “true believers” and “hard-core conservatives” at the Justice Department, one official noted. “Most of the young conservatives in the Administration consider Bork the guru,” said a judicial source who has spoken with many of them. “When they were going to law school, he was the conservative law professor,” the source added.

Only One Is Southerner

But Higginbotham is a decade younger than Bork, who is 60, and is a Southerner (from Alabama), both of which may be important considerations. Powell was the only Southerner on the court. Higginbotham has been active in bar groups and has “no major negatives,” one source said.

Posner would probably be the most controversial of the potential nominees. Although he is known as a brilliant and productive law professor and judge, critics say his ideas sometimes denigrate individual rights.

Wallace is a long-time conservative jurist who is close to former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. He also is close to several Californians in the Reagan inner circle.