WASHINGTON — Judge Paul Watford, who serves on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and has won praise from conservatives and liberals, has emerged as a finalist for President Barack Obama's nomination to the Supreme Court.

The president has narrowed his search to three appeals court judges, including Sri Srinivasan and Merrick Garland, both from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, according to officials close to the process. All three have had bipartisan support in the past.

But any of them likely would run into opposition from Senate Republicans, who have vowed to block action on any Obama nominee to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Watford, of Southern California, is the top contender from outside the Washington Beltway. If nominated and confirmed, he would be the third African-American to sit on the nation's highest court.

Obama is expected to announce his decision as soon as this week. Even if Watford, 48, does not get the nod, his inclusion on the short list could make him a contender in a future Democratic White House.

When Obama nominated Watford to the 9th Circuit in 2011, he won glowing praise, including from prominent conservatives. Since then, he has won compliments from judges who serve with him.

“The bottom line is he is just really wonderful,” said Appeals Court Judge Alex Kozinski, a Ronald Reagan appointee.

Watford clerked for Kozinski for a year early in his career, but “I can't describe him ideologically,” the judge said. “He has been my colleague for three or four years, and I can't pigeonhole him into anything. The guy is really, really smart. He is careful about applying precedent, but based on ideology, you cannot predict the guy.”

Two of Watford's opinions were reviewed by the Supreme Court last year. Both were affirmed.

In one case, the pastor of a small church in Gilbert, Ariz., sued because the town would not allow him to post large signs along the roadside to direct people to a Sunday service, even though large signs for political events and real estate were permitted. The 9th Circuit upheld the ordinance, but Watford dissented, arguing that sharply different treatment based on the content of the sign violated the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court agreed with Watford's view in June in the case of Reed v. Town of Gilbert. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the court's 6-3 opinion.

In the other case, Watford was in the majority, writing an opinion for the 9th Circuit that struck down a city ordinance that said the police may enter a motel and check the guest registry at any time.

The city ordinance violated the Fourth Amendment's ban on “unreasonable searches,” Watford said, because the motel operators were given no opportunity to contest the inspections before a magistrate. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the city's appeal in Los Angeles v. Patel, but affirmed the 9th Circuit's decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the opinion for a 5-4 majority.

Watford was born and raised in Orange County, Calif., and has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and from the UCLA Law School. After clerking for Kozinski in Pasadena, he was a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court.

UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh, a conservative and First Amendment expert, was among those who praised Watford when he was nominated to the appeals court. “Paul is the sort of Democratic nominee that moderates and conservatives, as well as liberals, should solidly support,” he wrote at the time. “He's extremely smart, thoughtful, reasonable and judicious.”

But even in Obama's first term, Senate Republicans stalled many of his court nominees, including Watford. When Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pressed for a confirmation vote, in 2012, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, objected, saying Watford was not a “consensus nominee.” He said he had concerns “regarding Mr. Watford's views on both immigration and the death penalty.”

Watford won Senate confirmation on a 61-34 vote, with the support of 52 Democrats and nine Republicans.

Grassley is now the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and said he will not hold hearings this year, no matter who Obama nominates for the high court.

dsavage@tribune.com