filibuster is a distraction. The real issue becomes how heavily she'll be scrutinized and how great an investment in time will Republicans invest. The next level of investment is not a filibuster, but how much effort Republicans will devote to this nomination."

On Monday, Obama announced Kagan as his second pick to the nation's highest court. If confirmed, she would join Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor in bringing the number of women on the Supreme Court to three, the highest in the court's history.

The Senate will determine whether the 50-year-old Kagan will become the replacement for retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Democrats control the chamber with 59 votes, one short of what they would need to forestall any possibility of a partisan filibuster.

Seven Republicans have already votedKagan's critics pore over thin paper trail
"If the president's nomination of Elena Kagan is successful, the result will move the Supreme Court to the right. Progressives should fight the Kagan nomination," said Norman Solomon, progressive activist and author of "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death."

The solicitor general — known informally as the "tenth justice" — represents the United States, including defending acts of Congress, at the Supreme Court and deciding when to appeal lower court decisions.

Kagan has never been a judge. Beyond her work as solicitor general and her time as dean of Harvard Law School, she does not have much material her opponents can use to attempt to forestall her confirmation.

Conservatives should investigate her background very closely because of that, said