President Obama has his plate full — and then some — with trying to fix the horrible economy, mending diplomatic relations around the world, keeping people in their homes and keeping the country safe. Another task he may have to tackle sooner than expected is one of the most anticipated jobs of any president — picking a Supreme Court nominee.

News came Thursday that the only woman justice, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, was hospitalized after surgery for pancreatic cancer. This isn’t 75-year-old Ginsburg’s first battle with cancer: She successfully beat colon cancer in the 1990s. Though Ginsburg insists she has no intention to retire, some speculate that this latest health scare could force her to step down from the bench. And chances are very good that, should Obama have to choose a judicial nominee to the high court, it would be a woman. No argument here! With the departure of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Ginsberg has been the lone female voice among her male counterparts, and a liberal one at that. O’Connor was also a key middle-of-the-road vote on the bench. Ginsberg has been an ardent supporter of women’s rights, particularly reproductive ones, and she supported Roe v. Wade. 

So who may Obama consider if it comes to that? AP puts forth the following options:

-Judge Diane Wood of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago

-Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, who is Hispanic

-Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, who is also Hispanic

-Pam Karlan, Stanford University law professor

-Judge Margaret McKeown of the 9th Circuit in San Francisco

-Elena Kagan, the former Harvard Law School dean whom Obama has nominated as solicitor general

-Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm whose name has also been floated as some sort of Obama "car czar"

-Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Sears