Full Court Press

George W. Bush and a legion of interest-group commandos aren't the only ones who are intently sifting names from a list of possible U.S. Supreme Court nominees. Washington's business representatives are also doing their share of judge-parsing, sizing up potential picks with a simple criterion in mind: Who'll be the most reliably pro-business on a not always business-friendly high court?

With Bush vowing to take his time in finding a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, nobody has a clear sense of which way the President will go. That leaves corporate advocates to pore over a dozen or more names on the Supreme Court short list -- or is it a long list? -- in hopes of finding a replacement for O'Connor, a bane of social conservatives but a powerful ally of the business community. Like his father, who nominated New Hampshire jurist David Souter in 1990, Bush could make a surprise pick.