U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recommended the four candidates, all of whom were interviewed in recent weeks in Washington by administration staff members, say those intimately familiar with the process.

The candidates include:

• U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd of Spartanburg

• S.C. Court of Appeals Judge John Kittredge of Greenville

• U.S. Attorney and Winthrop University graduate Reggie Lloyd of Columbia

• U.S. District Judge Terry Wooten of Florence

Under federal seniority rules, Wilkins' successor as chief judge would be Karen Williams of Orangeburg, who would be the first woman to hold that position in the circuit.

Bush nominated Floyd and Lloyd, both of whom were recommended for their current positions by Graham.

Floyd and Kittredge declined comment when contacted Friday, and efforts to reach the other candidates were unsuccessful. Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop declined comment.

The 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., covers South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. The court, which hears appeals from federal district courts in those states, is considered the most conservative circuit in the country.

Wilkins, who has been on the court since 1986 and chief judge since 2003, will step down effective July 1. With his retirement, the 15-judge court would have four vacancies -- the most of any appellate circuit.

Wilkins' brother is David Wilkins, the former S.C. House speaker who is U.S. ambassador to Canada.

By law, the president nominates candidates to federal district and appellate courts, and the U.S. Senate confirms them. Their appointments are for life.

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who follows the 4th Circuit, said the White House traditionally defers to the home-state senior senators for their recommendations for federal district court seats, but likely will take a more active role in the nomination to the 4th Circuit.

"It's the Supreme Court for everybody in the five states; that's where the law is made," he said, explaining that few cases decided by Courts of Appeals nationwide are reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tobias said the White House might take Graham's recommendations for the 4th Circuit seriously. But he added the Bush administration probably would be "less likely to listen to it" than to Graham's candidate preference for a federal district court seat.

With Democrats in control of the Senate, Bush, a Republican, probably will be more sensitive to Democrats' preferences in the nomination process, Tobias said. Bush might decide to postpone the decision for the next president, to be elected in 2008, Tobias said.

Floyd, a former Democratic state lawmaker who sailed through his last nomination process, is perceived as a moderate conservative jurist. Civil libertarians praised his 2005 ruling that said Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who had been held as an "enemy combatant" in the U.S. naval brig in Charleston, could not be held indefinitely without being charged.

"I think a lot of people respected him for the independence he showed," Tobias said.

That ruling, however, was overturned by a three-member panel of the 4th Circuit. Padilla later was transferred out of military custody to Miami after the Bush administration decided to pursue terrorism-related federal charges.

Michael Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, believes Floyd's ruling will hurt his chances of being nominated to the 4th Circuit.

"If he wrote a ruling that President Bush didn't like, he won't get nominated," Gerhardt said.

By nominating Lloyd -- South Carolina's first black U.S. attorney appointed to hold the position permanently -- to the federal bench, Bush could take a step toward quelling criticism about the small number of black federal judges in the South, Tobias said.

There are two black judges on the 4th Circuit and two on the U.S. District Court bench in South Carolina.