Back on February 16 I posted about whether any Third Circuit judges were plausible candidates to be nominated to fill Justice Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. I wrote:

Let’s start with their ages. Greenaway was born in 1957, Vanaskie in 1953, Shwartz in 1961, Krause in 1968, Restrepo in 1959. Advantage Krause.

How about circuit confirmation votes? Greenway: 84-0, Vanaskie: 77-20, Shwartz 64-34, Krause 93-0, and Restrepo 82-6. Advantage Greenaway and Krause.

Demographics? Greenaway is an African American man, Vanaskie is a white man, Shwartz and Krause are white women, and Restrepo is a Hispanic man. Disadvantage Vanaskie, after that it’s hard to say.

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I’ve described Judge Krause here before as “a rising star” whose initial published work has been “Supreme-Court-shortlist caliber.” My Magic 8-Ball says she’s the Third Circuit judge likeliest to get the call from a Democratic president. But my hunch is that’s a better bet for the next opening than for this one.

Today, Tom Goldstein wrote a post on Scotusblog entitled, “Five potential nominees from the federal appellate bench.” He wrote:

It is easy to identify the candidates who (i) serve on a federal court of appeals; and (ii) received unanimous Republican support in the confirmation process.  By culling based on a few other criteria – such as academic background, age, and length of experience on the appellate bench – we identified this list of five candidates, in alphabetical order:

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Hon. Cheryl Krause, who serves on the Third Circuit.  Previously, she was a federal prosecutor.  She was a law clerk to two Republican appointees.  She attended Stanford Law School.

Goldstein says he will publish profiles of Judge Krause and the other four in the coming days.

(My thanks to the intrepid reader who alerted me so quickly to the Scotusblog post.)