U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Karen J. Williams of Orangeburg is being mentioned by some national media outlets as a possible replacement for retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Williams, the daughter-in-law of former state Sen. Marshall Williams, was appointed to the federal bench in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush.

She was the first female judge on the 4th Circuit, widely regarded as the most ideologically conservative court in the federal appellate system.

But “lightning would have to strike,” for her to be appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, said College of Charleston political science professor David Mann.

“You have to be in the right place at the right time and have to be the right person,” said Mann, an expert on the Supreme Court and the judiciary. “If (the president perceives) O’Connor’s seat as a woman’s seat, then we very well might be talking about finding a qualified Republican woman.

“We’re not talking a litmus test, but parallel political ideology.”

Williams could not be immediately reached for comment.

Other women mentioned as potential nominees are judges Edith Jones and Edith Brown Clement of the 5th Circuit in New Orleans; Judge Susan Black of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta; and, Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the District of Columbia Circuit.

S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal said that with Williams, President Bush would get “the full package” of a judge who fits his conservative ideology and a lawyer with considerable trial experience.

“Isn’t that a wonderful suggestion?” Toal said when told Williams’ name had been mentioned.

Toal described the 4th Circuit as a center of conservative judicial philosophy in the nation, and she said Williams has been “a leading contributor to the scholarship of the 4th Circuit.”

Notably, Williams wrote an opinion setting the stage for an overruling of Miranda, a due-process opinion only conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia voted to affirm.

The 4th Circuit has appellate jurisdiction over federal district courts in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. No 4th Circuit judge has ever been elevated to the nation’s highest court, leading to more speculation that the Bush’s nominee could be chosen from that circuit.

However, Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson III of Virginia and J. Michael Luttig, a Texas native, are considered by many to be front-runners.

Four of the 12 judges on the 4th Circuit bench are South Carolinians. The others are:

• Chief Judge William W. Wilkins of Greenville, brother of new U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins, the former speaker of the S.C. House

• Judge William B. Traxler Jr. of Greenville, a former solicitor in Greenville and Pickens counties and a former state trial judge

• Judge Dennis W. Shedd of Columbia, former chief of staff for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Staff writer Jim Hammond contributed to this report.