If President Obama "leaves office with three, or maybe even four, women on the Supreme Court bench, [he] will cement his place in history as a powerful guardian of the interests of American women," Newsweek staff writer Daniel Klaidman writes in an opinion piece. Klaidman adds that Obama "will likely choose a woman" to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Sources close to the president say he has indicted in private conversations that he would like to appoint three women to the bench, if possible, according to Klaidman. Nominating at least three women to the court would "help solidify a key part of the Democratic base," Klaidman writes. "After a tough first year politically, Obama desperately needs to hold onto women voters," he adds.

Klaidman continues that "signs continue to point to Solicitor General Elena Kagan" as the likely nominee. "Obama's affinity for Kagan" might stem from her tenure as the dean of Harvard Law School, where she earned a reputation for "having built bridges to conservative members of the faculty," according to Klaidman.

Klaidman adds, "For her part, [Judge] Diane Wood, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, appears to have lost some altitude" as a potential nominee, in part due to "her paper trail ... of abortion decisions, which will undoubtedly serve as lightening rods for the right." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a "sentimental favorite" for the court, but she "probably won't make it (at least this time)," Klaidman states.

"On paper, it's pretty clear that of the short-listers Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has the best record of bridging the divide between liberal and conservative jurists," Klaidman writes. However, "an emerging conventional wisdom on Garland, who would be the least-controversial pick because of his reputation as a centrist, is that Obama should keep him in his back pocket for another time when the Democrats won't have as big a majority in the Senate," according to Klaidman (Klaidman, Newsweek, 5/3).

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