SCOTUS Analyst: Loretta Lynch 'More Likely' to Replace Justice Scalia

Attorney General Loretta Lynch is President Barack Obama's likely candidate to replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court – and could pose a challenge for a GOP-controlled Senate seemingly intent on blocking any pick, one analyst predicts.

SCOTUSblog author Tom Goldstein writes he had earlier thought Ninth Circuit Judge Paul Watford would be at the top of Obama's shortlist of high court candidates.

"On reflection, I think that Attorney General Loretta Lynch is more likely," he writes. "I also think that the Republicans will eventually permit the nomination to proceed on the merits and reject it on party lines."

Goldstein argues GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas will be a key figure when the debate hits the Upper Chamber because he "will drive enormous pressure against proceeding with any nomination."

Still, Goldstein points out, rejecting Lynch as the choice to fill the seat left by the death Saturday of the revered conservative Scalia poses a problem for Republicans on two fronts.

"Her history as a career prosecutor makes it very difficult to paint her as excessively liberal," he writes, adding: "I think the administration would relish the prospect of Republicans either refusing to give Lynch a vote or seeming to treat her unfairly in the confirmation process. Either eventuality would motivate both black and women voters."

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