The city’s corporation counsel, Michael Cardozo, is about to push to center stage Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for creating independent panels to approve judicial candidates.

Mr. Cardozo, the city’s top attorney, will deliver his and Mayor Bloomberg’s proposals in an 8:15 a.m. speech on judicial selection at New York Law School on Friday. The question of how New York should select its state Supreme Court trial judges has been the subject of a century-long debate, but a decision in January by a federal judge forced politicians in Albany and New York to look anew at the current system of judicial nominating conventions. The judge declared such conventions unconstitutional, citing the power of party leaders to keep candidates off the November ballot.

Messrs. Cardozo and Bloomberg in the past have advocated for an independent commission that would screen all judicial candidates before they seek the party convention’s nomination.

“It is my understanding that the city – the mayor with the advice of the present corporation counsel – will be introducing legislation in the area,” a former corporation counsel, Victor Kovner, said. “It basically asks the parties to nominate only the candidates announced qualified by this commission.”

Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Cardozo declined to comment.

If Messrs.Cardozo and Bloomberg do make such a legislative push, they will likely meet substantial opposition from the Republican-controlled state Senate, which passed a bill requiring all judges to face open primaries.

Critics of open primaries fear qualified judges will be ousted and that judges will be forced to seek contributions from the very lawyers who appear in their courts.