"I will listen hard to every party before the Court and to each of my colleagues. I will work hard," Kagan said in remarks released ahead of her first confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"And I will do my best to consider every case impartially, modestly, with commitment to principle, and in accordance with law," said Kagan, President Barack Obama's second nominee to the nation's highest court.
Kagan, 50, was expected to face tough questioning but win confirmation as one of the nine judges whose rulings on divisive issues including abortion, gun rights, and racial segregation have shaped the very fabric of US society.
But the White House's Republican foes planned a wholesale assault her thin record -- she would be the first non-judge in four decades to reach the summit of US justice -- and tar her as more partisan "activist" than impartial jurist.
Naming US Supreme Court justices ranks among the most consequential powers of the US presidency, as their lifetime tenure typically stretches well beyond the influence of the temporary occupant of the White House.
The justices serve as the final arbiters of the US Constitution, setting precedents for the entire US judicial system and adjudicating bitter political disputes in often narrow 5-4 rulings that can take a lifetime to reverse.
Some of their most controversial recent decisions have included the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in the United States and the Bush v. Gore decision that ended the disputed 2000 election in George W. Bush's favor.
Looming November mid-term elections have fueled bitter political tensions in the high-stakes battle over Kagan, who would be the youngest justice, and Republicans have refused to rule out trying to block a confirmation vote.
"If things come out to indicate she's so far outside the mainstream, it's conceivable a filibuster might occur," Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday.
Democrats and their two independent allies control 58 Senate seats, well over the 50 needed to confirm Kagan, but shy of the 60 votes needed to end debate and proceed to a final confirmation ballot.
Obama, addressing reporters after talks with world leaders in Toronto, Canada, urged lawmakers to "ask her tough questions" and dismissed arguments against Kagan as "pretty thin gruel."
Republicans lack the votes to stop the committee from referring the nomination to the full Senate for confirmation as just the fourth woman to sit on the nine-justice court in its 221-year history.
But the fight could affect how energized each party's most passionate core supporters are going into November mid-term elections to decide control of the US Congress.
Sessions told CBS television on Sunday that her "lack of experience is very significant," and vowed to test Kagan's ability to be impartial and not "utilize the power of the lifetime appointment to redefine the meaning of the Constitution, to have it promote an agenda, in an activist way."
In her opening remarks, which the White House made public, Kagan struck a humble tone and vowed to live by the motto engraved in marble over the entrance to the court: "Equal Justice Under Law."
"Everyone who comes before the Court - regardless of wealth or power or station - receives the same process and the same protections. What this commands of judges is even-handedness and impartiality. What it promises is nothing less than a fair shake for every American," she said.
The White House and its Democratic allies have said they would like to see Kagan confirmed as liberal standard bearer John Paul Stevens's replacement before the month-long August recess, in time for the court's fall session.
A recent public opinion poll by NBC television and the Wall Street Journal found that 29 percent supported Kagan's confirmation and 23 percent opposed it -- with a whopping 47 percent who said they "don't know enough" to say.
Kagan -- who received the American Bar Association's highest rating of unanimously well qualified for the court -- would be the second justice named by Obama after Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic to reach the bench.
A 1981 graduate of Princeton University, Kagan completed her studies at Harvard in 1986. She clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before entering private practice from 1989 to 1991.
She and Obama both taught law in Chicago, and Kagan worked in former US president Bill Clinton's administration.Us Supreme Court Petitions & Briefs - Tax Law Series
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