The Kavanaugh court will be the one conservatives have worked for decades to construct, experts say, with velocity the only question about the Supreme Court's advance to the right.
Expect re-energized efforts from social and religious conservatives to get their issues — gun control challenges, religious objections to gay rights — before a court where like-minded justices will make up the majority.
On the other hand, the proliferation of lawsuits from blue-state officials objecting to President Donald Trump's efforts to loosen environmental standards and impose tougher sanctions on immigration could fizzle.
Gone will be what one law professor called the "mushy middles" of Supreme Courts past, when justices such as Lewis Powell, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy held the key votes and sometimes abandoned their usual conservative colleagues to side with the left.