Grassley said at the time that Kelly was “well regarded in my home state of Iowa” and that he was “pleased to support” her nomination. The White House declined comment and Kelly’s assistant said she was not granting interviews on the matter, the newspaper said.
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The source told The New York Times that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has conducted several background interviews with Kelly. Scalia, a long-serving conservative justice, died on February 13. It comes as President Barack Obama seeks to nominate a replacement for late Justice Antonin Scalia and push Republicans to consider his choice. She was confirmed to the post by the Senate on a 96-0 vote.
Mr. McConnell said filling the vacancy “is something the American people should decide” by electing a new president in November.
Grassley’s spokeswoman, Beth Levine, could not confirm that Kelly had caught the White House’s eye.
Carl Tobias, a professor with University of Richmond School of Law and federal judiciary expert, said it would be hard for Grassley to resist her nomination.
Obama is likely to make his selection in the next two weeks, a timetable that would be consistent with the four to five weeks he spent deliberating before filling his previous two Supreme Court vacancies, in the cases of justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s Bench Chair and the Bench in front of his seat draped in black after his death.
A native of Indiana, Judge Kelly served as a federal public defender in Iowa before becoming a judge.
Kelly, 51, served as a clerk for now-retired Judge David Hansen, a friend of Grassley who served on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Five years into her tenure there, she was almost killed in a brutal attack while jogging on a popular trail in a Cedar Rapids park. Her nomination to the court was approved unanimously three years ago.
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Any nominee of Obama’s would have to accept that he or she may never serve a day on the court unless embraced by the next president.
