‘Trailblazer’ gets US Supreme Court nod

PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday picked Elena Kagan, a “trailblazing” legal scholar, to sit on the US Supreme Court, seeking to lock in decades of liberal consensus building on the conservative-dominated bench.

Obama called on the US Senate to swiftly confirm Kagan, 50, the US solicitor general and former dean of Harvard Law school, in a bipartisan fashion, despite the fevered political climate ahead of mid-term elections in November.

“I have selected a nominee who I believe embodies . . . excellence, independence, integrity and passion for the law, and who can ultimately provide that same kind of leadership on the court,” Obama said at the White House.