WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's potential U.S. Supreme Court picks include five women, a newspaper reports.

The Washington Post reported this week that the list was prepared by Thomas C. Goldstein, co-head of the litigation and Supreme Court practice of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP law firm.

Potential nominees on the list are Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan, Diane Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and Georgia state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears.

The Post reported that the list has not been confirmed by the Obama
campaign.

Considered possible nominees to the high court if Republican John McCain is elected are former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, Deborah Cook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit and Michael McConnell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Larry Thompson, a former deputy attorney general.

Washington appellate lawyer Charles Cooper, who served in the Reagan Justice Department and has advised Republican presidents on judicial nominees, said those are the names he often hears as potential McCain nominees.

"There are dozens of highly qualified, widely experienced, extremely gifted lawyers who both share Senator McCain's views on the limited role of the courts and who would (or ought to) attract bipartisan support in the Senate, even assuming a solidly Democratic Senate," Cooper was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.