  We present three bright z+ dropout candidates selected from deep
Near-Infrared (NIR) imaging of the COSMOS 2 square degree field. All three
objects match the 0.8-8um colors of other published z>7 candidates but are
three magnitudes brighter, facilitating further study. Deep spectroscopy of two
of the candidates covering 0.64-1.02um with Keck-DEIMOS and all three covering
0.94-1.10um and 1.52-1.80um with Keck-NIRSPEC detects weak spectral features
tentatively identified as Ly-alpha at z=6.95 and z=7.69 in two of the objects.
The third object is placed at z~1.6 based on a 24um and weak optical detection.
A comparison with the spectral energy distributions of known z<7 galaxies,
including objects with strong spectral lines, large extinction, and large
systematic uncertainties in the photometry yields no objects with similar
colors. However, the lambda>1um properties of all three objects can be matched
to optically detected sources with photometric redshifts at z~1.8, so the
non-detection in the i+ and z+ bands are the primary factors which favors a z>7
solution. If any of these objects are at z~7 the bright end of the luminosity
function is significantly higher at z>7 than suggested by previous studies, but
consistent within the statistical uncertainty and the dark matter halo
distribution. If these objects are at low redshift, the Lyman-Break selection
must be contaminated by a previously unknown population of low redshift objects
with very strong breaks in their broad band spectral energy distributions and
blue NIR colors. The implications of this result on luminosity function
evolution at high redshift is discussed. We show that the primary limitation of
z>7 galaxy searches with broad filters is the depth of the available optical
data.
