Appeals Judge in Line to Be Solicitor General : Bush Choice Closely Watched Because the Post Often Has Been Steppingstone to Supreme Court

President Bush on Wednesday named federal appeals court Judge Kenneth W. Starr to be solicitor general, a position that in the past often has been a steppingstone to the Supreme Court.

The solicitor general is the government’s chief advocate before the high court and a key player in formulating federal policy on legal questions. Several of the Supreme Court’s most prominent members during this century have served in the post--most recently Thurgood Marshall.

Marshall, as Starr will do, gave up lifetime tenure on the federal appeals court to become solicitor general in 1965. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to the high court two years later.

Chief Justice William Howard Taft and Associate Justices Robert H. Jackson and Stanley F. Reed, as well as Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork, are among those who served as solicitors general.

Moderately Conservative

Starr, 42, and a native of Texas, already had figured prominently in speculation about people Bush might choose when a high court seat comes open. A well-liked and moderately conservative judge, he was a law clerk for former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, then a lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles before following William French Smith to Washington in 1981 when Smith was named attorney general by former President Ronald Reagan.

Reagan in 1983 named Starr to the appeals court here, which is often termed the second most powerful court in the nation because of its broad jurisdiction over federal agencies. A high court seat has long been Starr’s ambition, friends said.

His nomination as solicitor general must be approved by the Senate.

As an aide to Smith and as an appeals court judge, Starr has compiled a generally conservative record. He has sided with the appeals court’s other Reagan appointees in the majority of controversial cases. He has, however, departed markedly in one area--First Amendment cases involving freedom of the press, where he has written strongly worded opinions supporting the media.

Sidelined by Laryngitis

Bush spent a good part of the day Wednesday sidelined by laryngitis, which forced him to cancel a planned speech to religious broadcasters. In the afternoon, he made one public appearance that lasted three minutes, during which he shook a few hands at an Executive Office Building briefing for leaders of the National Assn. of Wholesale Distributors. But White House spokesmen insisted that the President only sounds ill, and that he is, in fact, feeling fine and working normally.

In the meantime, Bush is expected to ask his long-time friend Burton J. Lee III, currently a physician at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the Ronald Reagan Administration’s AIDS commission, to serve as his personal physician and as a White House adviser on health policy.

Lee’s appointment is expected to be announced soon, and he is likely to accompany Bush on his first extended trip out of the country, the journey to Japan, China and South Korea later this month, sources familiar with the decision said.

‘He’s a Good Friend’

In an interview several months ago, Lee noted that his family and Bush’s have long been close. “We all grew up in Greenwich (Conn.),” he said. “He’s a good friend. His daughter roomed with my daughter (in college). There are a lot of connections.”

Recently, Lee accompanied Bush on a weekend fishing trip to Florida. Lee has twice served as president of the general medical staff at Sloan Kettering, one of the nation’s best known cancer research and treatment centers. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of lymphomas.

Today, Bush is expected to announce that Richard T. McCormack, 47, has been chosen for a major State Department post, undersecretary of state for economic affairs, the State Department’s top economic job.

Favorite of Conservatives

The nomination of McCormack, a former aide to Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and a favorite of conservatives, is considered by Administration sources to be a bow to the right wing of the Republican Party. But the sources also suggested that the appointment could be viewed as a signal that Secretary of State James A. Baker III does not plan to use the economic post as a major policy-making instrument.

McCormack, who has been Washington-based U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States since July, 1985, was assistant secretary of state for business and economic affairs from late 1982 through mid-1985.