Others seen as contenders include Justice Leondra R. Kruger of the California Supreme Court and J. Michelle Childs, whom Mr. Biden said he would nominate for the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit, a frequent staging ground for potential Supreme Court justices.
Because meet-and-greets in Washington have the potential for combustion, past guides have told nominees to more or less adopt a speak-when-spoken-to role. Tom C. Korologos, a former Republican lobbyist and ambassador, has been involved in over 300 Senate confirmation processes, including those of Justices William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, and the nominee Robert H. Bork. In an interview, Mr. Korologos read from a detailed sheaf of notes that he had gathered over the years — a veritable dos and don’ts list for potential nominees.
“The first thing that happens is you say to the nominee, ‘Your role indeed is that of a bridegroom at a wedding,’” he said. “‘Stand to the right, be on time and keep your mouth shut.’ You’ve got to take this process very seriously, spend every moment boning up on your hearing, and don’t assume you’ve got the job.”
He was not done.
“Don’t go anywhere near the court,” Mr. Korologos said. “Don’t meet with anybody. If you’re getting a haircut or having your nails done, don’t say a word to anybody, and reserve your comments for the hearing. Somebody will have heard it.”
Mr. Korologos, now 88, used to prep nominees by asking them to consider any skeletons in their closets. “What is there in your background that you have done that is going to come up in a hearing?” he said he would ask. “I’m not asking you to tell me, but get an answer to it because they’re going to find it and ask it.”
The final nomination team, Mr. Korologos said, will most likely engage in another strangely named process: so-called murder boards, where nominees and the nominee selection committee meet — in the past it has been at the White House or at a private home — and think of the nastiest possible questions that might come up in a hearing. Then they fling them at the nominee. Mr. Jones’s most recent sherpa predecessors included Jon Kyl, who served three terms as a Republican senator from Arizona and guided Brett M. Kavanaugh through one of the more bitter Senate confirmation processes in recent history.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was fast-tracked to her seat days before the 2020 election, did not have a Senate guide, a decision that aides of President Donald J. Trump said was because of coronavirus concerns.
