WASHINGTON – If President Bush were to try to nominate to the Supreme Court a judge with bipartisan appeal, his sights could land on a Puerto Rican native who grew up in the South Bronx.

Judge Jose Cabranes was appointed by President Clinton to ride the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals out of New Haven, Conn., after being considered for a seat on the top court by the administrations of both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush’s father.

The first Puerto Rican appointed to the federal bench – in 1979 by President Carter – his selection could allow Mr. Bush to make history by appointing the first Latino to the court should the ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist retire.

Judge Cabranes has reportedly been passed over for the seat now occupied by Justice Breyer because some Latino groups considered him not liberal enough. Washington insiders now question whether he is sufficiently conservative to make the short list of a president who has vowed to appoint judges in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas.

Still, Judge Cabranes’s supporters say the president ought to be pleased with his rulings.

He has upheld the federal death penalty and New York’s ban on prisoner voting, for example, and wrote a dissent criticizing Vermont’s strict campaign finance restrictions as “laughably low” and in violation of the First Amendment.

“He’s not doctrinaire. He is somebody who applies the law as it is written and would apply the Constitution as it is written,” said his longtime friend, Reagan-appointee Judge Michael Mukasey of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In the area of international law, for example, “he has taken positions this administration would find very agreeable,” Judge Mukasey said.

In a 2003 case known as Flores, Judge Cabranes rejected an attempt by Peruvian villagers to sue an American corporation over pollution they said amounted to a violation of international human rights law. Judge Cabranes wrote that vaguely worded international conventions are not a sufficient basis for suits in American courts.

The Bush administration “could not do better” than Judge Cabranes, said Judge Mukasey. Their friendship dates back to their days in college and at Yale Law School.

Described as a “warm” and, above all, “intellectually honest” person, the judge has won friends on both sides of the aisle.

At his confirmation hearings in 1994, Senator Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, predicted he would “perform admirably.”

The late Senator Moynihan called him a “New Yorker by nurture” and recommended him with the “greatest enthusiasm.”

Senator Dodd, a Democrat of Connecticut, said “he defies traditional, superficial ideological labelings”

Nonetheless, he is not at the top of short lists circulating among Washington’s conservative legal circles.

“He’s not a name that is talked about frequently,” the executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that promotes the president’s judicial nominees, Sean Rushton, said .

“I think certainly for the first vacancy that occurs, presumably replacing Rehnquist, there is not going to be any messing around. It’s going to be a rock solid conservative,” Mr. Rushton said.

But, “if you were talking about replacing Ginsburg, Stevens, or O’Connor, then there is more room for someone who is seen as more moderate,” he said.

A lawyer close to the Bush administration, who asked not to be identified, said Judge Cabranes was much less likely to be picked than two conservatives from Texas, Attorney General Gonzales and Fifth Circuit judge, Emilio Garza.

“I think he is an extreme long shot because he is not regarded as anything close to a solid judicial conservative of the kind the president wants to appoint,” said the lawyer.

When Republicans praised his 1994 appointment, “They were saying that for a Clinton nominee he’s pretty good, but that’s far from saying he should be a Bush nominee,” he added.

One supporter of Mr. Cabranes said ruefully, “He’s the kind of judge that Democrats wish Republicans would nominate and Republicans wish the Democrats would nominate – which probably means he won’t be nominated.”

To his fans, that is precisely the reason he would make a great judge.

Born in 1940 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, he moved to the South Bronx at the age of 5. He attended public schools in New York, and graduated from Columbia University and Yale Law School. He also earned a master’s degree from Cambridge.

He practiced law in New York, taught at Rutgers, and has served as special counsel to the Governor of Puerto Rico and as general counsel to Yale.

He is married to the Yale Law School professor, Kate Stith, with whom he co-authored a book criticizing federal sentencing guidelines. Judge Cabranes also wrote a book on the history of relations between the United States and Puerto Rico, was a co-founder of Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and has helped inner-city youth get to college.

“Not for a second has he forgotten where he came from or what his life success has meant,” the current dean of Yale Law School, Harold Koh, told the Judiciary Committee in 1994.

In speeches, Judge Cabranes tells Hispanic Americans to be proud of their heritage but warns against adopting a “victim mentality” or the idea that “our fate is to exist at the margins of our national culture.”

“Our place is in the mainstream and at the heart of this nation’s social and economic life,” the judge said in a speech to the Latino Law Students Association in Chicago in May. “We are therefore skeptical, and rightly should be skeptical, of any politics – including politics rooted in ethnicity and good intentions – that has as its consequences our segregation and marginalization.”

Ethnic politics have cut both ways for Judge Cabranes. When he was passed over for the top court by President Clinton, the decision was blamed in part on disunity among Latino groups, who disagreed over whether the candidate should be a Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, or other, and also were split over whether Judge Cabranes was sufficiently liberal.

Latino groups are much more unified today around the need for a Hispanic justice, regardless of his or her national ancestry or political leanings, said a former president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, Duard Bradshaw.

“The expectation is 100%” that a Latino will be nominated for the top court, said Mr. Bradshaw.

“I am hoping that we as a community have learned that we have to back whoever is the nominee, if the person is qualified,” said Mr. Bradshaw.

The group has placed Judge Cabranes, Judge Garza, and Mr. Gonzales on a confidential short list of eight top picks for the court that was submitted to the White House, the current president, Alan Varela, said.

“We consider them to be exceedingly qualified to sit on the United States Supreme Court,” he said.

Unlike Judge Cabranes, Judge Garza would probably unleash a dramatic confirmation battle, drawing intense opposition from many Democrats, liberal groups, and pro-choice groups for his past criticism of the Roe v. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion.

To date, no such concerns have been raised about Judge Cabranes. His views on hot-button social issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage are not well-known.

“We would surely not instantly oppose him,” the legal director of People for the American Way, a liberal group that has been at the forefront of opposing Mr. Bush’s judicial nominees, Eliot Mincberg, said, adding, “We would want to look into his record in more detail.”

“I don’t want to say we’d like him,” Mr. Mincberg, said, “because if we did, that would be the kiss of death.”