A LOOK AT POSSIBLE SUPREME COURT CANDIDATES : Emilio M. Garza

Conservative

U.S. appeals court judge

U.S. Circuit Court Judge Emilio M. Garza, 43, is a soft-spoken, conservative jurist whose three years on the federal bench have provided few indications of how he would rule on the issues that might face him as a Supreme Court justice.

Born in San Antonio’s largely poor West Side, Garza was a litigator with a corporate practice in March, 1987, when Texas Gov. Bill Clements appointed him to the state bench. Seven months later, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm recommended him for appointment to a U.S. District Court judgeship in the 5th Circuit.

Last April, Garza was nominated for an appellate court seat. He was confirmed last month.

In recommending Garza, Gramm hailed him as a man who “shares with me a belief in the strict construction of the Constitution--a belief that Congress, and not the courts, makes the laws.” Garza, he said, shares “a concern about the rights of victims, as well as the rights of criminals.”

In March, 1988, at his Senate confirmation hearing, Garza said that he believed his job would be “to read the law, to understand as best as I am capable . . . not to make my own judgments.”

The fact that his views on many issues are unknown makes Garza similar to Justice David H. Souter, who was nominated for the high court in similar circumstances.

Garza is single, a former Marine captain and a man who attends Mass during his lunch hour. He attended Holy Cross High School in San Antonio, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Notre Dame and received his law degree from the University of Texas.

He has two brothers and is the son of a businessman who had only a sixth-grade education but became a corporate financial officer. Garza’s mother was born in Mexico.

During his 11 years with the law firm of Clemens, Spencer, Welmaker & Fink, Garza defended Texas businesses in malpractice, negligence and product liability cases. Although he forged close ties to the Texas business community, Garza has also had support from traditionally liberal Latino bar groups in Texas.