President Barack Obama's second pick to the highest court in the United States looked set to be confirmed by the Senate after two days of grilling by lawmakers ended Wednesday with few glaring flaws exposed in her nomination, DPA reported.
Elena Kagan, currently Obama's top attorney, offered few insights into the ideology she would bring to the Supreme Court, following what has become a tradition of nominees evading most hot-button political questions during their testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Opposition Republicans conceded it would be difficult to derail her nomination. Senator John Cornyn told reporters, "I assume she will be confirmed," while the committee's chairman, Patrick Leahy, also predicted Kagan would be backed by the Senate.
The addition of Kagan would for the first time put three female justices on the nine-member Supreme Court. She joins Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, a Bill Clinton nominee, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Obama's first nominee and the first Hispanic member of the court.
Legal analysts predict Kagan will be a moderate left-leaning member of the court. She is not likely to alter the court's ideological balance, replacing Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired this week as a leading member of the court's left-leaning wing.
The court is considered to have four conservative and four left- leaning members, with Justice Anthony Kennedy typically acting as the swing vote in controversial cases.