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WASHINGTON: A key US Senate committee voted on Tuesday to approve President Barack Obama's second US Supreme Court pick, Elena Kagan, sending her nomination to the full Senate for an all-but-certain confirmation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6, with just one Republican joining all of Obama's Democratic allies in agreeing to refer the nomination to the full Senate, which was expected to take it up before a month-long August break.
Obama praised Kagan, who would be just the fourth woman ever to reach the highest US court, as "one of this country's leading legal minds" and said she would make "a fair and impartial Supreme Court Justice."
"I want to thank the Judiciary Committee for giving her a thorough, timely and respectful hearing, and I look forward to the full Senate taking up and voting on this nomination before the August recess," Obama said in a statement.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the only member of the panel to break party ranks, highlighted Kagan's support for broad "war on terrorism" government powers as he announced he would vote to approve her.
"She understands we're at war," said Graham.
The justices serve life terms as the final arbiters of the US Constitution, setting precedents for all US courts and adjudicating bitter disputes, often in narrow 5-4 rulings that can take a generation to reverse.
Some of their most controversial decisions have included the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling that legalised abortion in the United States and the Bush vs Gore decision that ended the disputed 2000 presidential election in George W. Bush's favour.
Democrats and their two independent allies control 58 Senate seats - 59 after a successor to the late Senator Robert Byrd takes office later Tuesday - well over the 50 needed to confirm Kagan, and Republicans have shown no sign they plan to use parliamentary delay tactics that require 60 votes to break.
The White House and its Democratic allies have said they would like Kagan confirmed to replace liberal standard bearer John Paul Stevens in time for the court's fall session.
Kagan - who as US solicitor general has represented the Obama administration before the high court - would be the second justice named by Obama, after Sonia Sotomayor became the first Hispanic to reach the bench.
Nominating US Supreme Court justices ranks among the most consequential powers of the US presidency, as a judge's lifetime tenure typically stretches well beyond the influence of the temporary occupant of the White House.
Democrats pointed to her decades of legal work, including in her current position arguing the Obama administration's view before the high court as US Solicitor General and her time as the first woman dean of Harvard Law School.
Her Republican critics said they feared she would be unable to keep her personal politics separate from her judging.
Kagan drew the American Bar Association's highest rating of "unanimously well qualified" and her nomination had the support of past solicitors general, including many Republicans.
- AFP/de
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