Scramble by Democrats Expected for Court Seat : Vacancy: Women and minority groups are likely to champion their candidates with the White House.

The prospect of an open seat on the Supreme Court brought hope Friday to a generation of Democratic legal luminaries and began an immediate mobilization by groups that plan to champion their candidates with the White House.

“This will set off a real scramble,” said an official of one liberal Democratic group.

Even as Justice Byron R. White announced a retirement that will give Democrats their first Supreme Court pick since 1967, Democrats were compiling their lists of top prospects. Among them were Mario M. Cuomo, the New York governor; Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund and a personal friend of the Clintons; Amalya L. Kearse, a U.S. Appeals Court judge in New York; Richard Arnold, a federal appellate judge and a friend of the Clintons; and Drew S. Days III, a Yale professor and former U.S. Justice Department official.

Clinton aides said the selection effort will begin with a small staff meeting with the President today. They said that so far they do not have any formal structure or deadline in mind for the process.

“We’ve got a lot of time,” said George Stephanopoulos, the White House communications director, noting that White will not step down until the summer.

Cuomo, the only potential candidate Clinton has mentioned favorably for the court, “is focused on being governor,” said Anne Crowley, his press secretary. “He doesn’t spend time thinking about options that are not in front of him.”

But recently the governor has spoken favorably about the job and often has mused about the joys of becoming a judge on New York’s highest state court. In an interview with the Albany Times-Union, he called the high court “about as luxurious a life as you can imagine intellectually. . . . It’s heaven.”

The governor added, however, that the job did not offer the satisfactions of direct action that are available to executive officials.

Clinton set off speculation about his interest in judicial activists last summer when he said Cuomo “would be a good Supreme Court justice. He is a legal scholar who understands the impact of the law on real people’s lives.” Later, Clinton explained that he did not intend to commit himself to naming Cuomo but rather wanted to identify him as the kind of justice he would like.

Edelman, who is usually identified with the liberal end of Democratic politics, said Friday through a spokeswoman that she has not been approached by the Clintons “and wouldn’t be interested in the job.” Edelman “believes she can do the most good in her current role,” the spokeswoman said.

Some liberal activists noted that the opening gives Clinton an opportunity to give the court more women and minorities than it has had before. Judge Kearse and Days, who are both black, were on the short list of candidates for the attorney general’s post.

The appointment also could give Clinton an opportunity to appoint the first Latino, in response to growing pressure for such action by several groups. Antonia Hernandez, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Jose Cabranes, a federal judge in Connecticut, are among Latinos favored by Democratic groups for the job.

Some also have noted that there has not been a Jewish member of the Supreme Court since Justice Abe Fortas stepped down in 1969.

Clinton, who already has 110 vacant federal court jobs to fill, so far has not specifically said that he intends to make ethnic or gender diversity a special goal in a Supreme Court selection. He has stressed the importance of naming women and minorities to the federal judiciary as a whole.

“The most important thing is that we get the best candidate,” Stephanopoulos said. He said that white males would not be excluded from consideration.

During last year’s campaign, Clinton drew criticism from some quarters for saying that he would expect his Supreme Court nominee to support a right to privacy and a “right to choose,” although he denied that he would impose any “pro-choice litmus test.”

The President and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, both lawyers, are well-versed in the issues facing the Supreme Court, and are believed to have highly developed views about the desirable qualifications for a candidate.

Mrs. Clinton is expected to be closely involved in the decision. If the nominee is from the party’s liberal wing, it is likely to set off a new debate about her influence over her husband, who campaigned as a centrist on some issues.

Several Democratic lobbyists with ties to the White House suggested that Clinton might seek a consensus choice, such as he found in Janet Reno for the attorney general’s job. A consensus candidate would help to avoid an ugly confirmation fight in the Senate next summer just as the President is shepherding his economic plan through Congress.

“Especially on the first one (high court nominee) I think he’s going to want a winner,” said an official of one liberal interest group. “On the second one he can be more flexible.”

Clinton might also want to take his time with the selection to avoid giving the conservative opposition a chance to find and publicize any personal embarrassments. “Time is always on the side of the opposition,” the official said.

Conservatives, meanwhile, served notice that they may strongly fight some candidates and warned Clinton against imposing any litmus test. Clinton Bolick, an official of the conservative Institute for Justice and a former advocate for Justice Clarence Thomas, urged Clinton to choose a candidate in the judicial mainstream.

“If Clinton makes this nomination an ideological battleground, it will turn into a judicial Armageddon,” he said in a statement.

Times staff writer John Broder in Atlanta contributed to this story.

Who Will Be Clinton’s First Pick on High Court?

Here are profiles on some of the leading candidates to replace Byron R. White on the Supreme Court:

MARIO M. CUOMO: Governor of New York. Is 60 years old, born in Queens County, N.Y. Graduate of St. John’s College and St. John’s University School of Law.

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. Is 53 years old, born in Bennettsville, S.C. Was graduated from Spelman College and Yale University Law School. Is a personal friend of the Clintons.

AMALYA L. KEARSE: A U.S. Appeals Court judge in New York, 55. Born in Vauxhall, N.J. Graduate of Wellesley College and received law degree from University of Michigan.

RICHARD ARNOLD: Federal appellate judge, 56, was born in Texarkana, Tex. Graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Was a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan Jr., 1960-61. Is a friend of the Clintons.

DREW S. DAYS III: Yale University law professor, 51. Born in Atlanta. Is a graduate of Hamilton College and Yale University Law School. Was assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Jimmy Carter Administration.

Source: Who’s Who in America, Times staff reports