Obama's top court choice faces battle

By Steve Holland - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pick of Sonia Sotomayor to join the U.S. Supreme Court will trigger a battle in the U.S. Senate over what conservatives called her liberal positions, but she is likely to prevail.

Sotomayor's selection for the lifetime position may do little to change the court's 5-4 conservative majority as she replaces liberal justice David Souter, who is retiring.

Sotomayor, 54, fulfils Obama's objective of choosing someone without a privileged background, given that she grew up in a public housing project in the Bronx in New York City.

Democrats welcomed her nomination warmly while Republicans, who are in the minority in the Senate, promised to give her respectful, rigorous scrutiny during the summer months.

She will produce more fireworks in her Senate confirmation battle than would have any of the other people who were on Obama's short list -- proof that he did not shy away from a battle with his political opponents.

But given the Democrats' strong majority in the 100-member Senate, it appeared unlikely Republicans would be able to derail her appointment or drag it out indefinitely, although they were already warning they wanted ample time to consider her nomination.

REPUBLICAN DILEMMA

With midterm elections around the corner in 2010, the nomination poses a predicament for Republicans -- how hard to go after her at a time when party leaders would like to stem the exodus of Hispanic voters from their ranks.