Some of them may be worthy candidates for future high court vacancies.

The panel recommends three candidates for each court vacancy, leaving the final choice to the judicial convention run by party bosses.

It was was very much in evidence last year, as he awaited word from the White House over the first court vacancy.

Federal courts could better cope with the rising tide of criminal cases if there were more judges, but court vacancies have become chronic.

When George W. Bush took office in 2001 there remained dozens of federal court vacancies.

Judge Roberts's presence was a vivid reminder of the unusually dramatic circumstances - and two simultaneous court vacancies - caused by the chief justice's death.

There would have been no Court vacancy until 1968, when Chief Justice Warren retired.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani could help matters by picking up the pace in filling criminal court vacancies.

He said that the president had been briefed on his staff's preparations for a court vacancy, and that "he knows the orbit of names."

One even sent a videotape meant to humanize the man Mr. Clinton had rejected for an earlier Court vacancy.