Possible Supreme Court nominees during a second President Biden administration.

President Biden's strategy for filling any Supreme Court vacancies in a second term is to maintain a focus on diversity.

The president plans to use the successful nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as a model for handling any future Supreme Court vacancies, according to sources close to the White House and his re-election campaign.

Officials reveal that the president intends to emphasize Jackson's confirmation to various important groups as the campaign progresses, particularly to Black voters who will be crucial to his re-election.

Biden has committed to naming a Black woman as his replacement for Justice Stephen Breyer, and after gathering a list of qualified jurists, he has narrowed it down to three finalists: Jackson and judges Leondra Kruger and J. Michelle Childs. Kruger and Childs are still top contenders for the Supreme Court, sources say.

Biden has emphasized the diversity of his judicial nominees, with almost two-thirds being women and an equal percentage being members of a racial or ethnic minority group, compared to Trump's 24% in his single term.

Biden has the opportunity to make history by appointing the first justice who identifies as Asian American or Pacific Islander, and he would have over 30 AAPI judges he has named to the lower federal courts to choose from.

The retirement of Justice Clarence Thomas, who turns 75 on June 23, or Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who turns 70 two days later, would put political pressure on the next president to appoint a Black or Latino to the Supreme Court.

Biden has been proactively recruiting competent federal judges to fill vacancies. In fact, he recently had his 200th federal judge confirmed by the Senate, which is slightly ahead of his predecessor's pace at this stage in his presidency.

An unofficial list of potential Supreme Court candidates by Biden was compiled from various sources, including officials within his inner circle, his political campaign, and Democratic political and legal circles.

The White House administration, like previous ones, promptly assembled a list of potential high court nominees. However, thorough vetting only commences when a vacancy arises or is publicly announced by a retiring justice.

• Leondra Kruger, California Supreme Court Justice

Kruger, born in 1976, is a former Obama Justice Department lawyer who has argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court. She also clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and was a finalist for the 2022 court seat that went to Brown Jackson. Kruger's sterling resume and relatively young age could continue to make her a strong favorite for a Supreme Court seat, especially if Thomas retires. She is considered a moderate on the state high court and often a "swing" or deciding vote in close cases. However, state judges rarely receive serious consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court. The last was Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981. Kruger's parents were both pediatricians. Her mother is Jamaican. Her late father was the son of Jewish immigrants. She gave birth to a daughter in March 2016.

• Sri Srinivasan, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Srinivasan, born in 1967 in India, was later appointed to the court in 2013 with a unanimous vote. He is currently the chief judge on that bench. Prior to his appointment, he was a finalist for the seat that Garland was nominated for. The son of Indian immigrants and raised in Kansas, Srinivasan served as the principal deputy solicitor general at the Justice Department and argued more than two dozen cases before the Supreme Court. He would be the high court's first Asian American. Srinivasan clerked for Republican-nominated federal judges Harvie Wilkinson and Day O'Connor. Obama praised him as "a trailblazer who personifies the best of America." Known for his low-key, practical, and non-ideological approach, he may not excite many progressives, nor give conservatives much to dislike.

Srinivasan's calm demeanor during oral arguments is praised by Justice Elena Kagan, who worked with him in the Obama SG's office.

• Elizabeth Prelogar, U.S. Solicitor General (pronounced: PRE'-low-guhr)

Prelogar, born in 1980, became the 40th solicitor general in October 2021, after serving for months in an acting role. The Idaho native clerked for justices Ginsburg and Kagan, a former solicitor general, and for then-Judge Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit appeals court. Prelogar is not the first to become a justice after serving as solicitor general; former solicitors general William Howard Taft, Robert Jackson, Stanley Reed, and Thurgood Marshall all went on to become justices.

In 2004, she was a contestant in the Miss Idaho beauty pageant and recently appeared on the NPR quiz show "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me," discussing vacuum cleaner salespeople.

• Lisa Monaco, Deputy Attorney General

Monaco, born in 1968, served as a federal prosecutor and national security adviser under Obama from 2013-2017. Prior to that, she worked as a researcher under then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden starting in 1992. If Garland retires, Monaco is a top contender for attorney general in a second Biden term.

• Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Chicago

Jackson-Akiwumi, born in 1979 in Norfolk, Virginia, is a former federal defender in Chicago and a former partner in a D.C. law firm. She was nominated by Biden in March 2021, one of three Black women named to appeals court seats in the administration's first months. Both her parents are judges, U.S. District Judge Raymond Alvin Jackson and former Norfolk General District Court Judge Gwendolyn Jackson.

• J. Michelle Childs, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

In December 2021, Biden nominated Childs, a South Carolina-based federal district court judge since 2010, to serve on the high-profile D.C. Circuit appeals court, replacing the retiring Judge David Tatel. Childs was Biden's second Black woman on the D.C. Circuit, after now-Justice Jackson. Sources say Rep. Clyburn (D-S.C.) strongly pushed the White House to name Childs to this seat. The D.C. Circuit is seen as a professional stepping stone to the Supreme Court. Besides Jackson, recent justices who earlier served on that appellate bench include John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. Childs had previously been a federal district court judge since 2010. The Detroit native went to law school at the University of South Carolina.

• Myrna Pérez, 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, New York

Pérez, who was born in 1974 and currently holds her seat, was appointed to the position in 2021. Prior to her current role, she served as director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the progressive Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. A native of San Antonio, she would be a strong contender for the position if Sotomayor were to retire.

• Judge Nancy Maldonado presides over the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, located in Chicago.

In 1975, Maldonado was born and later nominated for a seat on the 7th Circuit. She would be the first Hispanic judge on that federal appeals bench. If nominated to the high court, she would have a strong supporter in her home state of Illinois.

• Patricia Millett, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

In 2013, Millett, born in 1963, was appointed to a bench viewed as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court, where four current justices previously served, including Justice Scalia. Prior to her appointment, Millett was a private Washington-based appellate attorney, highly regarded by Obama as "one of the nation's finest." She also had over a decade of experience in the U.S. Solicitor General's office. Millett argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court, the second-most ever for a female lawyer. Sources from both sides of the political spectrum describe her as fair-minded, no-nonsense, and non-ideological. However, age may be a disadvantage for any future high court vacancies.

Robert King, a U.S. Navy reservist, is her husband, and they met at a Methodist Church singles event.

• Cindy Kyounga Chung, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Pittsburgh

Chung, a Korean-American native born in 1975, is a Biden appointee currently serving in her seat as a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh.

• Roopali Desai, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Phoenix, Arizona

Desai, a private attorney born in Toronto, Canada, to Indian parents, successfully worked with the Arizona Secretary of State's office to challenge the state's 2020 presidential election results. She was later appointed by Biden to the largest federal appeals court.

• Lucy Haeran Koh, 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, San Francisco

In 2021, Biden renominated Koh, who was born in 1968, to the federal appeals court. Her 2016 nomination expired with the end of the 114th Congress, and Trump subsequently named someone else to the seat. Koh, an Oklahoma native of Korean descent, had been overseeing separate multidistrict litigation involving tech giants such as Samsung and Apple, Inc. She is married to state Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar.

• Judge Pasadena, California at the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, is Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen.

Hong-Ngoc Nguyen, born in 1965 in Dalat, Vietnam, and appointed to the court in 2012 after two years as a federal district court judge, could make history as the high court's first Asian American justice. She is already the first Asian American woman to sit on a federal appeals court. A former state judge, federal prosecutor, and private attorney, Nguyen moved with her family to the U.S. when she was 10, just after the fall of South Vietnam to the communists. Her parents eventually set up a doughnut shop in North Hollywood, California.

• San Jose, California-based 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Michelle Friedland.

In 2014, Friedland was appointed to the appeals court seat and was sworn in by former Justice O'Connor, whom she had previously served as a law clerk.

• Arianna Freeman, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Philadelphia

Freeman, who was born in 1978, is a Biden appointee and the first Black woman on the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. However, her service as a former federal public defender in the City of Brotherly Love was criticized by Senate Republicans during her judicial confirmation.

• Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Wilmington, Delaware

In 2022, Biden appointed Montgomery-Reeves to her current seat on the Delaware Supreme Court, having been born in 1981 in Jackson, Mississippi. Her ties to her home state would likely appeal to the president.

• Paul Watford, private attorney in Los Angeles and former judge

Watford, born in 1967, was a favorite among some liberal court watchers due to his age and background. In 2012, he was named to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, where he resigned in May 2023 to go into private practice. He was a finalist for the seat that went to Garland in 2017, although that nomination ultimately failed. Watford clerked for conservative-libertarian former federal Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit and later for Bader Ginsburg. He is also a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner. Supporters call the Orange County, California, native an ideological moderate, which may not sit well with progressives seeking a stronger liberal voice. However, his rulings limiting police discretion in search and seizure cases have been applauded by left-leaning advocates.

• Goodwin Liu, California Supreme Court Justice

Liu, a former Justice Ginsburg law clerk, was born in 1970 and is of Taiwanese descent. He helped draft her dissent in Bush v. Gore and was rejected twice by Senate Republicans for a seat on a San Francisco-based federal appeals court. Liu was eventually filibustered after conservatives said he was "outside the mainstream," expressing concerns over his past statements on a variety of hot-button topics such as same-sex marriage and health care reform. A Liu nomination would be among the most contentious made by a Democratic president.

• Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, former California Supreme Court Justice

In 2021, Tino Cuéllar, born in 1972 in Mexico, was appointed president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an organization based in D.C. Cuéllar, who is nicknamed "Tino," served in the Obama and Clinton administrations and has a background in academic law. He is married to federal Judge Lucy Koh.

• Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is home to Jane Kelly, an 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge.

Kelly, born in 1964, is the second woman to serve on the St. Louis-based court, having been appointed in 2013 with a unanimous 96-0 vote. Throughout her legal career, she worked as a federal public defender in Iowa. One of her biggest supporters is fellow Iowan Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Obama and Kelly graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

• David Barron, 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Boston

Barron, who was born in 1967 and served as acting assistant attorney general in the Obama administration, was confirmed to the bench in May 2014. He later went on to teach at Harvard Law School and clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens. However, as a white male, he may face challenges if President Biden feels pressure to replace Justice Ginsburg with a woman.

• Robert Wilkins, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Washington

Wilkins, born in 1963 and raised by a single mother in Indiana, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989. In 1992, he filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Maryland State Police after being pulled over for speeding. The lawsuit was based on the officers' instructions to focus on young Black males when making lawful traffic stops.

• Cheryl Ann Krause, 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge, Philadelphia

Krause, born in 1968, served as a law clerk for two Republican-appointed court judges, including Justice Anthony Kennedy. She was appointed to her current seat in 2014 by Obama.

• Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

Typically, a few members of Congress are included on these lists as a political courtesy, especially to senators who would vote on any nomination. Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who were former 2020 presidential candidates and gained national prominence during the Justice Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, are frequently mentioned.

Booker, a former mayor of Newark, is one of four Black senators born in 1969. Klobuchar, born in 1960, was a county prosecutor and adviser to former Vice President Walter Mondale. She has been frequently mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate for Biden and a high court candidate, dating back to 2009.