White House Holding Interviews With Five Potential Supreme Court Justice Nominees

The White House has begun the already controversial task of picking a Supreme Court justice to replace the late, staunchly conservative justice Antonin Scalia, and is interviewing five potential candidates, according to a source close to the process.

All five candidates meeting with the White House have been reported to be on the short list of potential nominees, but the source said they were the only ones currently under consideration. They are federal judges Sri Srinivasan, Jane Kelly, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Paul Watford and Merrick Garland.

The vacancy created by Scalia's death last month quickly set off a bitter confirmation fight between President Barack Obama, who has promised to fulfill his obligations to fill the seat before his term ends, and Republican senators who have promised to block any nominee, arguing that the next president, who takes office in 2017, should be charged with the task.

Two of the five candidates under consideration are judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, which is commonly considered the second most powerful court in America after the Supreme Court itself, the unnamed source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Garland, 63, is the DC Circuit court's chief judge and has been described as a "model, neutral judge" — the sort of centrist candidate that conservatives could possibly get on board with if they decided to consider an Obama nominee. Garland has had the support of conservative commentators and Supreme Court watchers in the past, when his name was floated for a possible opening, according to SCOTUSblog.

Srinivasan, 49, who also serves as a judge on the DC circuit court of appeals, was confirmed by the Senate in a 97-0 vote in 2013. He previously worked in the Solicitor General's office during both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, and would be the first Supreme Court justice of South Asian descent as well as the first Hindu justice on the Court, confirmed.

Related: There Is About to Be a Nasty Fight Over Replacing Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court

Also on the shortlist is Brown Jackson, 45, the youngest potential nominee and a judge for the US District Court for the DC Circuit, the source said. The trial judge has experience working in private practice and as a public defender and has served on the United States Sentencing Commission. If chosen, Brown Jackson, who is related by marriage to House Speaker Paul Ryan, would be the first African-American woman to sit on the bench.

Kelly, 51, a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, previously worked as a lawyer in Iowa. Kelly is considered to be a strong candidate because Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which holds hearings on potential nominees, supported her nomination to the 8th Circuit. Grassley praised Kelly at the time, but has said that he will not bring any nominee to the Supreme Court through his committee this year for approval.

Watford, 48, a judge for the US of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, previously clerked with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Unlike Kelly, Watford has met with opposition from Grassley, who previously contested Watford's nomination to a federal judgeship based on his involvement in cases where he demonstrated liberal views on both immigration and the death penalty. Ultimately Watford was confirmed by a 61-34 vote.

Any potential nominee will face a long and hard path in the confirmation process. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would not hold hearings on anyone whom Obama chooses to nominate to the Supreme Court. Republicans, who control the Senate, do not want to see the court shift ideologically to the left and say the next justice should be picked by the winner of the November 8 presidential election.

Outside groups have said that Obama is likely to consider someone who is a woman or a member of a racial minority and was previously confirmed to a judgeship by a strong majority in the US Senate.