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GOP Senators Given List of 13 Potential Justices

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Associated Press

White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. on Monday presented Republican senators with names of 13 potential Supreme Court candidates in a fast-track effort that could produce a new nominee this week.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), one of five senators at the meeting, confirmed that Baker’s list began with 13, and said nine remained strong candidates at the end of the closed meeting but there were objections to the other four.

Three of those reportedly on the list were considered by Senate Democratic sources as candidates they could support, barring any new information. They are Judge Anthony M. Kennedy of Sacramento, Calif.; Judge Ralph K. Winter Jr. of New Haven, Conn., and Judge Roger J. Miner II, of Albany, N.Y.

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More controversial names listed, Senate sources said, would be Judge Pasco M. Bowman II of Kansas City; Judge J. Clifford Wallace of San Diego, and Laurence H. Silberman, who serves with Judge Robert H. Bork on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Other Names Mentioned

Other names reportedly mentioned include U.S. District Judge Pamela Ann Rymer of Los Angeles; Edith H. Jones of Houston, a judge on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and William W. Wilkins of Greenville, S.C., a judge on the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

One source said at least one senator proposed adding the name of Judge Gerald B. Tjoflat of Jacksonville, Fla., of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hatch confirmed that Wallace remained on the list. The senator said it was an “important message” that the Administration was consulting with senators in the wake of the defeat Friday of Bork’s Supreme Court nomination by a 58-42 vote.

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