Conservative Colorado judge Neil Gorsuch is the leading contender for President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nomination, which could happen as early as next week, according to media reports.

Gorsuch, who sits on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, was included in a list of 21 potential nominees for the Supreme Court released earlier by the Trump campaign and has recently emerged as the front-runner on a shortlist of six possibilities, sources close to Trump say.

The nine-member court has had a vacancy for nearly a year since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Senate Republicans refused to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.

At 49, Gorscuh would be the youngest Supreme Court justice in 25 years, notes ABC’s Jonathan Karl, who also reported that he was the leading finalist on Tuesday morning. Four other federal appellate court judges are on the shortlist, according to reports, including the 11th Circuit’s William Pryor, the 3rd Circuit’s Thomas Hardiman, the 8th Circuit’s Steve Colloton and the 7th Circuit’s Diane Sykes. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen is also among the finalists, The Daily Beast reported.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said during a press conference Monday that the Trump administration should have an update on the Supreme Court nominee “in the next week or so.” Last Thursday, Trump told a luncheon he had a good idea who he was planning to nominate, according to a video obtained by CNN. “I think in my mind I know who it is,” Trump said. “I think you’re going to be very, very excited.”

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid, a former Colorado solicitor general, was among the 21 potential nominees circulated last year by the Trump campaign.

Gorsuch’s nomination to the appellate court was approved in 2006 by a voice vote in the Senate. Before that, he was serving as deputy assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush. After receiving his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, his law degree from Harvard Law School and a doctorate of legal philosophy from Oxford University, he clerked for Supreme Court Justices Byron White, another Colorado native, and Anthony Kennedy.

He is the son of the late Ann Gorsuch Burford, a former state legislator who was named by President Ronald Reagan to head the Environmental Protection Agency in 1981. She resigned two years later after being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to furnish documents, although she argued she had been following the advice of Reagan’s Justice Department.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com