Wilson Narrows Supreme Court List to 6 : Legal system: All of his possible choices to replace Justice Panelli are conservatives. Only one is a white male.

After more than seven months of consideration, Gov. Pete Wilson has narrowed his election-year search for the California Supreme Court to six conservatives, most of them women or minorities and former prosecutors.

Advisers say Wilson is looking for a collegial, conservative consensus-builder, preferably from Northern California, to fill the vacancy left by the Jan. 31 retirement of Justice Edward Panelli, who told the governor of his decision to step down in early September. Five of the six finalists serve on the state Court of Appeal.

Under political pressure to appoint a woman or a minority, Wilson has selected three women as finalists and only one white man. Wilson rankled some critics in 1991 when he named Justice Ronald George, who is white, to fill a vacancy left by Justice Allen Broussard, who was the court’s only African American.

The governor’s delay in filling the vacancy has prompted speculation that his first choice for the job may not have fared well in the California State Bar commission’s confidential ratings, which were completed weeks ago, or that he is waiting for a politically opportune moment to announce his nominee.

Since Panelli’s retirement, the court has been forced to borrow judges from the Court of Appeal to hear cases and break ties, creating delays and prompting concerns about potential inconsistencies in court rulings.

“Obviously, (the vacancy) slows everything down,” said University of Santa Clara Law School Dean Gerald Uelmen, citing an extremely light schedule for oral arguments since Panelli retired.

Court of Appeal justices from around the state are being asked to cast instrumental votes when the court is tied 3 to 3 over which cases to accept for review--even though the judges were not present during the court’s private deliberations over the cases. Four votes are needed to grant review.

Advisers to Wilson noted that the court has operated before with even longer vacancies, which have resulted in sharp drops in the number of cases decided.

Often slow to fill government vacancies, Wilson has been especially distracted in recent months by the Southern California earthquake, fund raising for his campaign and an announcement that the headquarters for Taco Bell was considering relocating to Texas, his advisers said.

He has yet to interview any of the court finalists, although he is close to narrowing the field, his staff said.

“The truth is his appointments office wants to move forward, and he has not been able to find sufficient time for something that is this important to him,” said Vigo (Chip) Nielsen, Wilson’s campaign lawyer. “It has nothing to do with politics at all. It has to do with an exceptionally heavy workload.”

The six finalists are Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian, an associate justice from the Court of Appeal in San Jose; Janice Brown, Wilson’s legal affairs secretary; Ming W. Chin, an associate Court of Appeal justice here; Reuben Ortega, an associate Court of Appeal justice in Los Angeles; Arthur Scotland, an associate Court of Appeal justice in Sacramento; and Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, also an associate Court of Appeal justice here.

Wilson, his advisers said, wants a justice with Panelli’s personal skills and temperament. The retired justice was well-liked, easily approachable and generally accessible to the public and the news media. Court analysts credited him for his collegial style and ability to bring together divergent views on the court.

Geographical balance also is a consideration, the advisers said, but not an overriding one. Five of the court’s six justices are from Southern California and one is from Fresno. Panelli was from the Bay Area. Among the finalists, only Ortega lives in Southern California.

The court is headquartered in San Francisco, and all the justices maintain Bay Area residences.

Given the conservative credentials of the finalists, Wilson’s second appointee to the court is not likely to change its philosophical leanings, which tend to be pro-prosecution and pro-business.

Some have speculated that Wilson has moved slowly in filling the spot because he initially wanted to name Brown, his legal affairs secretary, but later changed his mind because of her lack of judicial experience, a factor that the California State Bar probably considered in its rating.

The State Bar committee that evaluated the six refused to disclose its ratings, citing confidentiality requirements. But the last justice without prior judicial experience was the controversial Rose Elizabeth Bird, whom voters dumped from the court in 1986.

Brown, 44, is considered smart, capable and dedicated, and her appointment would put both another woman and a minority on the court. She is African American. Justice Joyce Kennard, who is part-Indonesian, is the only woman and minority now on the court.

Wilson also is personally fond of Brown, and she is believed to be headed for some judicial appointment, if not the Supreme Court. She advises him on a wide variety of legal issues, including clemency petitions.

Brown received her undergraduate degree from Sacramento State University and her law degree from UCLA.

Finalist Bamattre-Manoukian, 43, has been a judge for 10 years. She was an Orange County prosecutor when former Gov. George Deukmejian appointed her to the West Orange County Municipal Court in 1983. He subsequently moved her to the Municipal Court and the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, elevating her to the Court of Appeal in 1989.

Her rulings have been viewed as strongly pro-prosecution on the criminal side and generally conservative on civil matters. She is friendly and well-liked. A Los Angeles native, she received her law degree from Loyola University and a bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology and a Ph.D. in public administration from USC.

Chin, 51, a former prosecutor, has six years of judicial experience and knows Wilson personally. The California State Bar has given him its highest rating--exceptionally well-qualified--in the past.

He is affable and scholarly, supporting his rulings at times with citations from scientific and medical journals and winning wide praise for his work on the Court of Appeal.

Although generally conservative, he is considered more independent than some of the other candidates.

Like Chin, Ortega, 52, has won the “exceptionally well-qualified” Bar rating, but he has the potential disadvantage of being a Southern Californian and not knowing Wilson.

A resident of Huntington Beach, the conservative Ortega has been a prosecutor and a defense attorney. He grew up in New Mexico, earning his undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico and his law degree from Georgetown University.

Scotland, 47, is the only white man among the finalists. A former Deukmejian Cabinet secretary, Scotland served as a Sacramento prosecutor and a deputy state attorney general. He knows Wilson and contributed $125 to his campaign in 1989.

Werdegar, 57, also is a friend of the governor. They were studying partners in law school at Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley. She has contributed $3,500 to his campaigns over the years, and he appointed her to the Court of Appeal in 1991.

Werdegar formerly served as an associate dean and professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law and as a senior staff attorney to Panelli for six years. Panelli liked her so much that he singled her out as a possible replacement when he announced his retirement in September.

She graduated first in her law class, became the first woman to be named editor of the law review at UC Berkeley and has written a book on criminal law procedure. She is considered an independent conservative on the Court of Appeal.

Uelmen, who follows the Supreme Court closely, said the vacancy is bound to reduce the number of decisions the court writes this year because of the extra time it takes to communicate with substitute justices who work elsewhere in the state.