Sri Srinivasan. United States Department of Justice/Handout via Reuters

The replacement of Justice Antonin Scalia — who died on Saturday at the age of 79 — could shape up to be a bitter fight.

Though President Barack Obama may not be able to get a justice confirmed while he's still in office, there has previously been speculation about who the president would like to put on the bench.

Back in 2013, Supreme Court expert Jeffrey Toobin speculated in a New Yorker article that Sri Srinivasan, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, would be the president's next nominee.

After Scalia's death Saturday, we reached out to Carter Phillips, a lawyer who's argued 73 cases before the high court, to get his prediction — and it turned out to be the same.

"I would bet on Srinivasan on the DC Circuit, but I doubt he will be confirmed before the next election," Phillips wrote Business Insider in an email.

Srinivasan, 48, was born in Chandigarh, India, and holds a dual J.D./MBA from Stanford. He gained national recognition when he represented former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling in front of the Supreme Court in 2009.

As Toobin noted in his article, Srinivasan had the kind of "impeccable credentials that are much beloved by the Supreme Court bar." Moreover, he would be the first Asian-American on the high court.

His confirmation would hardly be a sure bet, though. Obama, who has only 10 months left in his presidency, will likely face serious opposition from Senate Republicans who would rather wait and have the next president decide who's going to fill a seat vacated by a conservative icon.