PROVIDENCE — It has been 10 months since former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee nominated former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Robert G. Flanders Jr. for a seat on the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, in Boston, but the White House has yet to send Flanders’ candidacy to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.

“It is unsettling in all aspects of one’s life” to be held in limbo for so long, said Flanders in a brief interview Friday. “It would be good to have this resolved one way or another. It is in the hands of the White House and that is all I know.”

Flanders is a well known and respected lawyer at the Providence law firm of Hinckley, Allen & Synder.

With Chafee out of office, there is no longer a Republican presence in Rhode Island’s Washington delegation — which means that the White House will go to Governor Carcieri for recommendations for federal judgeships. Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal says Carcieri backs Flanders for the circuit court.

There is another federal judgeship open because Chief U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres has assumed what is known as “senior status” — a form of semiretirement allowed to federal judges. Carcieri has yet to make any recommendations to the White House on that position, Neal said.

The judgeship appointments are complicated by the November elections, which sent the Senate back into Democratic hands. Vermont Democratic Patrick Leahy, a staunch liberal and civil libertarian from a navy blue state, is the new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers judicial appointments.

Leahy is hoping to work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans on judgeships but has made it clear that he will not push judges to the federal bench over the objections of local senators, said Tracy Schmaler, committee spokeswoman.

In Rhode Island, this would mean consulting with Sen. Jack Reed, the state’s senior senator, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee. Democrats Reed and Whitehouse would, in effect, have a veto over any judicial candidates recommended by Republican Carcieri.

Reed has been supportive of Flanders but has said that the longer the White House takes no action on the nomination — and with his sponsor’s November defeat — the dimmer its prospects will be.

Carcieri has more say over Rhode Island state judgeships, and there are two vacant seats on the Superior Court. One was held by William A. Dimitri Jr., who died last year, the other by Stephen J. Fortunato, who recently retired.

So far, Carcieri is in the middle of interviews of four candidates for the Dimitri vacancy. They are:

•Bennett R. Gallo, of West Greenwich, a member of the state Parole Board and the Coventry law firm of Nolan, Dailey, Gallo, Rothemich and Brunero. He was an assistant town solicitor for Coventry from 1978 to 1987.

•Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer, of Bristol, is the state Supreme Court clerk and wife of Superior Court Judge Mark Pfeiffer. She was a special assistant attorney general from 1997 to 2003.

•Carol A. Zangari, of Providence, a lawyer with a private practice in Providence. She is a former partner in the firm of Anderson, Anderson and Zangari.

•William E. Carnes Jr., of Pawtucket, is legal counsel to Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, D-North Providence. He was a Lincoln police officer from 1976 through 2001, retiring as detective commander with the rank of lieutenant.

Carcieri has not made a final decision, Neal said. But because the state Senate must confirm any choice, Carnes, popular with the Senate, may have an edge, say State House sources.

The state Judicial Nominating Commission has not yet advertised seeking candidates for the Fortunato position, said Gerard Visconti, commission chairman, but will soon, he said.