‘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.

Democrats praised Kagan as “razor sharp” and impeccably qualified for the lifetime appointment on the nine-member bench, but Republicans promised to vigorously vet a “surprising” choice, noting she had never been a judge.

Kagan’s nomination represents Obama’s second bid to reshape the Court, which adjudicates critical questions of US political, legal and social life, for years to come, following his appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor last year.

He said he was pleased that Kagan, if confirmed, would be the third woman on the current court, saying the bench, to which he appointed Sotomayor as the first Hispanic justice, would reflect American life as never before.

“Elena is widely regarded as one of the nation’s foremost legal minds,” Obama said, arguing that Kagan’s “fair-mindedness” and “skill as a consensus builder” on the high court, would replace some of the wisdom lost with the retirement of the court’s top liberal, John Paul Stevens.

The president also called on the US Senate to swiftly confirm Kagan’s appointment in a bipartisan fashion, despite a political row already brewing over her nomination to replace Stevens, 90, who served for 34 years.

Kagan thanked Obama for the “honour of a lifetime” and said she “so loved the law.”