In the new weekend edition of the WSJ, an editorial went over the "Chick List" of potential O'Connor replacements:

But the feminine Big Four are Edith Jones, Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, and Alice Batchelder, all appeals-court judges. Each is a judicial conservative of intellectual heft and with more experience on the bench than Judge Roberts. None, however, is as bullet-proof as Judge Roberts, who managed to pursue a 25-year career in law without leaving much of a public record of his views on hot-button issues.

Recall that I earlier commended Todd Zywicki's support for Jones or Batchelder. The editorial seems to favor Jones, and has this to say about Brown (my first choice):

If anything, Judge Brown is even more outspoken. She once referred to colleagues on the California Supreme Court as "philosopher kings" when they overturned a law requiring parental consent for minors who wanted abortions. She's an advocate for property rights, and she's called big government "the opiate of the masses" and the "drug of choice" for many segments of society. In 2000, she wrote the opinion affirming Proposition 209, which banned racial and gender preferences in state hiring and contracting.

Her credentials aren't as impressive as Judge Jones's, and she might be too libertarian for Mr. Bush. But if nominated, her personal story would complicate matters for liberal interest groups. The NAACP would have to decide whether to oppose the confirmation of a daughter of a sharecropper from Alabama. She was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit earlier this year as part of the filibuster-ending deal in the Senate.

NY Times:

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

A sad day indeed.

I had earlier questioned (before Roberts' nomination) whether the O'Connor replacement should be a woman. Obviously, the nominee was not. But a woman to replace Rehnquist certainly would be remarkable: the first female Chief Justice (assuming nobody is elevated and that Roberts isn't now moved to the newest spot, both of which I think very unlikely). Perhaps the Bush Administration planned for just this. Although there was a lot of speculation that Rehnquist's death was imminent, I never heard any solid support. The Administration, however, likely had a very good idea exactly how ill the Chief Justice was and may well have planned to nominate a woman (soon) for Chief.

Given how recently candidates were reviewed by the Administration, a second nominee could be chosen very quickly. This time, though, the wait will be punctuated with sorrow and will exist to allow us all time to memorialize Chief Justice Rehnquist. Unfortunately, the 2005 October Term is fast approaching, and the wait will likely be shorter than one would like.

UPDATE: Or not... Roberts it is.