Long Island

Politics

ny-elenakagan-sg

WASHINGTON - U.S. Solicitor General <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a>'s elevation to the Supreme Court appeared virtually assured Wednesday as a majority of senators declared their support for her nomination as the debate over her confirmation entered its second day. 
Kagan, 50, was tapped by <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">President Barack Obama</a> in May to replace the retired Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a>. A floor vote on the nomination is likely Thursday, and <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> are not expected to attempt a filibuster. 
For some senators, however, their decision may have consequences beyond confirming the nation's 112th justice. Several <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> casting votes are locked in tight re-election struggles, including Sen. <a href="/topics/Blanche_Lincoln">Blanche Lincoln</a>, a moderate from <a href="/topics/Arkansas">Arkansas</a> who is battling Rep. <a href="/topics/John_Boozman">John Boozman</a> to return to the <a href="/topics/U.S._Senate">Senate</a>. 
Lincoln's office said Wednesday the senator will vote to confirm Kagan. But when Lincoln took to the Senate floor in the afternoon, she spoke at length about a child nutrition bill and didn't mention the nominee at all. 
Sen. <a href="/topics/Barbara_Boxer">Barbara Boxer</a> (D-<a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>.) announced that she too will back Kagan, praising her as a "role model for women entering the legal profession." Boxer's opponent in the Senate race, <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> Carly <a href="/topics/Carly_Fiorina">Fiorina</a>, immediately followed with a statement saying she opposed Kagan's confirmation. "Her complete lack of judicial experience coupled with a public record that sheds minimal light on how she would execute [her] duties gives me great pause about her qualifications," Fiorina said. 
Kagan has never been a judge and has spent much of her career in academia and as a policy adviser in the <a href="/topics/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton">Clinton</a> administration.

News

Nation/World

USKAGA05

Kagan's path to Supreme Court clears as senators pledge support

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 Tuesday to approve the nomination of native New Yorker Elena Kagan to be a Supreme Court justice. 
In the near party-line vote, Sen. <a href="/topics/Lindsey_Graham">Lindsey Graham</a> (R-S.C.) was the only <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> to join the 12 committee <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> to make Kagan the fourth woman to be a justice 
The nomination now will go to the full Senate, where Majority Leader <a href="/topics/Harry_Reid">Harry Reid</a> (D-Nev.) has said he will set a vote before the August recess begins. 
A year ago, the Senate confirmed Kagan as the first female solicitor general in a 61-31 vote. 
If approved as a justice, as expected, Kagan would take the place of long-serving Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a>, who retired in June.
During the debate before the committee vote, Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a> (R-Ala.) led the opposition to Kagan, calling her a political lawyer who offered spin rather than clear answers to the committee. He and other <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> particularly targeted her actions as <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean in temporarily barring military recruiters from the school's recruitment office over the military's "don't, ask don't tell" policy on gay service members.
Sessions harshly criticized Kagan's testimony on those actions, calling it "at best inaccurate, at worst intellectually dishonest."
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-<a href="/topics/Iowa">Iowa</a>) said Kagan has "a far-left ideological belief," while Sen. <a href="/topics/Jon_Kyl">Jon Kyl</a> (R-Ariz.) scored her for her actions in favor of abortion rights and <a href="/topics/Gun_Control">gun control</a> as a Clinton <a href="/topics/White_House">White House</a> counsel and policy aide. 
<a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> backed her for her experience in all three branches of government and as <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean.
Sen. Charles <a href="/topics/Charles_Schumer">Schumer</a> (D-N.Y.) praised Kagan as "intelligent, thoughtful, mainstream and moderate."
He bemoaned her timing as a nominee, coming as it does in a divided political atmosphere just months before the midterm elections. 
Yet Schumer cited her hiring of conservatives when dean of the liberal Harvard Law School. 
"At Harvard, she bridged deep divides among the law school's faculty," Schumer said. "We need her to do the same for this sectarian court."
Graham, as he did in breaking with his party to vote for Justice <a href="/topics/Sonia_Sotomayor">Sonia Sotomayor</a> last year, voted for Kagan - again citing the prerogative of a president to make appointments to the court.
Graham, a former military lawyer, downplayed the military recruitment issue and called Kagan "a loyal American." 
He acknowledged that as a conservative, he disagreed with her views as a liberal, but said she's qualified for the court. 
"I'm going to vote for her," Graham said, "because the last election has consequences."

USKAGA21

Kagan nomination clears Senate committee vote

Kagan The Fundraiser

WASHINGTON - A <a href="/topics/Senate_Judiciary_Committee">Senate Judiciary Committee</a> vote on <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a>'s Supreme Court nomination Tuesday was postponed a week at the request of Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a> of <a href="/topics/Alabama">Alabama</a>, the committee's top <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a>.
Sessions said <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> need more time to review her written testimony and qualifications, which he questioned. Any committee member can ask for a delay of a vote.
With a majority on the committee, <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> plan to approve her nomination and send it to the full <a href="/topics/U.S._Senate">Senate</a> for a vote. The Senate is expected to confirm her as the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

New York

USKAGA14

Committee postpones vote on Kagan nomination

Kagan Supreme Court

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> opened her <a href="/topics/U.S._Senate">Senate</a> confirmation hearings Monday by promising she would employ "evenhandedness and impartiality" in judging cases and show deference to <a href="/topics/U.S._Congress">Congress</a> if she's confirmed, as is expected. 
In a 12-minute statement aimed at <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> criticism that she'd be a "liberal judicial activist," Kagan described the role of the Supreme Court as "modest" and said it must be "properly deferential to the decisions of the American people and their elected representatives." 
Kagan, 50, the solicitor general and former <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean, appeared on a day clouded by the deaths of Sen. <a href="/topics/Robert_Byrd">Robert Byrd</a> (D-W.Va.) and the husband of Justice <a href="/topics/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a>. 
Her appearance also coincided with the final decisions in the Supreme Court's term - including a ruling that extended the right to bear arms individually to state and local law - setting the stage for her questioning Tuesday through Thursday. 
Kagan, who was born and raised in <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>, introduced herself in the nationally televised hearings on her nomination to replace retiring Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a> with a humble address, thanking mentors and even former students for valuable lessons about the law. 
"I will make no pledges this week other than this one - that if confirmed I will remember and abide by all these lessons," she said. 
"I will listen hard," she said. "I will work hard. And I will do my best to consider every case impartially, modestly, with commitment to principle and in accordance with law." 
Before she spoke, <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> praised her resume, intellect and ability to build a consensus, and called her lack of judicial experience "refreshing." 
But <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> told her to expect to be grilled to determine what they called her little-known views, and scored her for failing to have practical law experience. 
Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a> (R-Ala.), the committee's top <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a>, called her a liberal political operative and asked whether she can judge impartially. "Ms. Kagan's career has been consumed more by politics than law," Sessions said. "This worries many Americans." 
Many <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> senators told Kagan she had put herself in the hot seat with a 1995 law review article that urged nominees to answer, and not duck, questions. Even Sen. <a href="/topics/Herb_Kohl">Herb Kohl</a> (D-Wis.) told her he had questions because "your judicial philosophy is almost invisible to us." 
Sen. <a href="/topics/Charles_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> (D-N.Y.) disagreed: "Frankly, there are not many blanks left to fill in. Given how forthcoming <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">General Kagan</a> has already been, I would think that we could finish this hearing in one round of questioning."

USKAGA29

Kagan promises 'evenhandedness and impartiality' on the court

WASHINGTON (AP) — She may never have been a judge or worked on many cases, but Supreme Court nominee <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> is assuring senators that she’s up to the job of being a justice. 
Her lack of courtroom experience is just one line of criticism <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> are lobbing against Kagan, the 50-year-old solicitor general <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">President Barack Obama</a> tapped to succeed retiring Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a>. 
Kagan has gotten off to a fast start meeting with senators whose votes she’ll need for confirmation. Shuttling from Capitol Hill office to office for a delicate but crucial series of “courtesy calls,” she’s stayed quiet in public but fielded questions in private about her resume, opinions and legal philosophy. 
Kagan, a former <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean, defended herself Wednesday against <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> doubts about her fitness to be a justice. She said she’d be “faithful to the law,” according to Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a>, R-Ala., who said he asked whether she could be impartial given that she’s identified with “liberal” positions and has clerked for two judges he called “activist.” 
Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel that will hold Kagan’s confirmation hearings, said he’d do his best to give her a “fair” hearing, and Sen. <a href="/topics/Patrick_Leahy">Patrick Leahy</a>, D-Vt., the committee chairman, said he’d guarantee a process where senators could ask “all relevant questions.” 
Republicans are questioning whether Kagan can be impartial in light of her political views and current position on <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Obama</a>’s team. And they have harshly criticized her decision while at Harvard to bar military recruiters from campus because she disagreed with the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay soldiers. 
<a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> senators say they want to see documents from her time serving in <a href="/topics/Bill_Clinton">Bill Clinton</a>’s <a href="/topics/White_House">White House</a> to get a better understanding of her fitness for the Supreme Court. 
“I think all the documents that are producible should be produced,” Sessions said. “The American people are entitled to know what kind of positions she took, and what kind of issues she was involved with during her past public service.” 
<a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> praise Kagan as a highly qualified, sharp legal mind who will bring an important perspective from outside the federal bench to the job of justice. 
“She brings to this court that kind of intellect and those values that can make a positive difference for the future of the court,” said Sen. <a href="/topics/Dick_Durbin">Dick Durbin</a> of <a href="/topics/Illinois">Illinois</a>.

ny-pokagan0514

Kagan heads back to the Hill for whirlwind visits

BOSTON (AP) — In a widely circulated 2003 memo, <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> blasted the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gay soldiers as “a moral injustice of the first order.” 
Kagan was explaining to students and faculty why military recruiters were allowed on campus again after almost 25 years of being banned from the law school’s main recruitment office. 
She said that under a federal law known as the Solomon Amendment, the university risked jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding unless the school helped recruiters. The law allows the government to deny federal grants to schools that prohibit military recruitment on campus. 
The following year, after a federal appeals court struck down the law as unconstitutional, Kagan re-imposed a ban on recruiters — a move that is now expected to be used as “anti-military” fodder by Republicans opposed to her confirmation to the <a href="/topics/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States">U.S. Supreme Court</a>. The issue was used against her during her confirmation hearing last year for her current post as U.S. solicitor general. 
Former U.S. Attorney General Edwin <a href="/topics/Edwin_Meese">Meese</a> III, chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the <a href="/topics/Heritage_Foundation">Heritage Foundation</a>, a conservative think thank, said Kagan’s actions at <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> raise important legal questions. 
“(She) tried to essentially challenge the law and tried to get the Supreme Court to overrule what was a valid determination of policy by the Congress,” Meese said. 
Robert Levy, chairman of the <a href="/topics/Cato_Institute">Cato Institute</a>’s board of directors, agreed that Kagan is going to have to explain her position in that case. 
“She wasn’t one of the strongest advocates,” Levy said. “But she was certainly in the camp.” 
But former Harvard Law Dean <a href="/topics/Robert_Clark">Robert Clark</a>, Kagan’s predecessor, called it “foolish” to criticize Kagan on the recruitment issue. 
In an op-ed piece in The <a href="/topics/Wall_Street_Journal">Wall Street Journal</a> Tuesday, Clark said that when Kagan was named dean, she continued a policy he started the year before, when he began allowing the military to recruit through the school’s career services office again following a threat by the federal government to cut off research funding at Harvard. 
Clark said Kagan wrote a public memo stating her objection to “don’t ask, don’t tell” and “expressing her strong view that military service is a noble and socially valuable career path that should be encouraged and open to all of our graduates.” 
Kagan re-imposed the ban on recruiting only after the appeals court struck down the Solomon Amendment. Within months, she lifted the ban when the Supreme Court overturned the appeals court. 
“Outside observers may disagree with the moral and policy judgments made by those at Harvard Law School. But it would be very wrong to portray <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> as hostile to the U.S. military,” Clark wrote. “Quite the opposite is true.” 
Kagan’s supporters say she followed the law precisely in imposing the ban on recruiters, and again, several months later, when she lifted the ban. 
“Elena Kagan does not have a single anti-military bone in her body,” said Walter Dellinger, a former solicitor general in the Clinton administration who wrote a brief to the Supreme Court that was signed by 40 <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard University</a> professors, including Kagan. 
Harvard had banned military recruiting through its career services office since 1979, when it passed an anti-discrimination policy for all employers who wanted to recruit there. 
Adam Sorkin, the former president of Harvard Law School Lambda, a gay students’ group, said Kagan “wasn’t the big leader on this.” 
“All she did was follow the law at the time. When the 3rd Circuit court said the law is you don’t have to allow the recruitment on campus, she didn’t, and when the Supreme Court said you do, she did,” said Sorkin, now a lawyer in <a href="/topics/Chicago">Chicago</a>. 
Kagan was not the first at Harvard to take a stand against a military policy. 
The Solomon Amendment was passed two decades after Harvard first banned military recruiters over the issue of discrimination against gays. Afterward, military recruiters were still allowed to recruit students on campus through the Harvard Law School Veterans Association, a student group. 
However, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Republicans in Congress called it a disgrace that military recruiters were being hampered in a time of war, and the Bush administration threatened to cut off funding. 
In 2002, Harvard Law School relented and allowed military recruiters to use a campus office. 
Kagan continued that policy after becoming dean in 2003, the same year a major lawsuit was brought by 36 law schools challenging the Solomon Amendment. Harvard did not join the lawsuit, but filed a brief siding with the other schools. 
In 2004, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the Solomon Amendment unconstitutional. The next day, Kagan banned military recruiters from using the campus office but still allowed work through the veterans group. 
Yet again, under threat of a funding cutoff, Harvard relented and Kagan allowed the recruiters to use a campus placement office. 
And in 2006, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed the 3rd Circuit, finding it constitutional to deny funding to schools that do not allow military recruiting.

ny-uskaga0512

Kagan’s role against military recruitment studied

WASHINGTON - Just five years ago, <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a>, then dean of the <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School, held a reception to honor an up-and-coming alumnus named <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Barack Obama</a>, in his first year in the <a href="/topics/U.S._Senate">Senate</a>.
Though not widely known yet, both traveled along the rarefied network of the powerful in 2005, and since then, both have taken a fast track upward, Obama winning the presidency and Kagan winning confirmation as the solicitor general.
Monday, by picking Kagan for the lifetime job as Supreme Court justice, Obama, in many respects, chose someone who appears to be much like him.
They both have reputations as being intellectually superior, had limited experience for their current jobs, and are seen as liberal but pragmatic <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> who can be unpredictable, activists on both sides say.
Both are trailblazers - as the first black president and the first woman Harvard Law dean and solicitor general - who also are known as consensus builders who reached out to conservatives at Harvard.
But the question Senate Democrats and <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> will be asking is: How close are their views of the Constitution and judicial philosophy?
Right now, no one knows, making Kagan, experts said, a "stealth nominee" whom senators will grill at <a href="/topics/Senate_Judiciary_Committee">Senate Judiciary Committee</a> hearings this summer.
At age 50, Kagan - a native New Yorker whose father was a tenant lawyer - worked as a <a href="/topics/Bill_Clinton">Clinton</a> <a href="/topics/White_House">White House</a> aide and an academic at the <a href="/topics/University_of_Chicago">University of Chicago</a> and at Harvard.
But she never served as a judge who produced a stack of rulings and she spent just a few years as a lawyer. Her academic writings reveal little. A year ago, Kagan answered so few questions in hearings to become solicitor general that then-<a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> Sen. <a href="/topics/Arlen_Specter">Arlen Specter</a> (D-Pa.) voted against her. She was confirmed in a 61-31 vote.
Conservative activists Ed Whelan and Curt Levey said earlier this year Kagan did not rank among the more liberal possible picks, a rating liberals also offered.
Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a> (R-Ala.), who will lead GOP questioning of Kagan, said he doesn't know enough to "classify" her views.
Sen. <a href="/topics/Charles_Schumer">Charles Schumer</a> (D-N.Y.) called her a moderate.
Kagan's political experience, according to her Senate questionnaire last year, came in the Democrats' centrist wing.
As Clinton's domestic policy adviser, she helped fashion the welfare reform that led two officials to quit in protest. But she also worked on bills to limit tobacco use and hate crimes.
Monday, the left and right flagged key questions.
The left cited executive authority and anti-terror policy.
"Kagan's record indicates a troubling support for expanding presidential powers," which resulted in torture, illegal detention and profiling, said the <a href="/topics/Center_for_Constitutional_Rights">Center for Constitutional Rights</a>.
Backers say Kagan spoke out against torture and profiling. Yet, as Harvard dean, she sent one letter to <a href="/topics/U.S._Congress">Congress</a> against a bill to bar court hearings of petitions from Guantánamo detainees. Obama also has drawn criticism for not reversing more Bush-era anti-terror policies.
The right and some Republicans cited military recruitment.
Kagan "spit in the eye of America's armed forces," said the Committee for Justice, by banning recruiters from Harvard Law in her opposition to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. Kagan joined two briefs asking the court to overturn that policy, but let recruiters return to avoid losing federal funds. Obama also seeks to change the policy, but has let the <a href="/topics/The_Pentagon">Pentagon</a> set the pace.

USANAL11

Analysis: Obama and nominee Kagan have much in common

Barack Obama and Elena Kagan

Some reaction to President <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Barack Obama</a>’s nomination of <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> for Supreme Court justice. ——— “I am particularly pleased President <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Obama</a> has chosen a nominee from outside the judicial monastery. I believe that through her confirmation process, <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> will demonstrate that her primary allegiance is to fairness, justice and the rule of law, not ideology.” — Senate Majority Leader <a href="/topics/Harry_Reid">Harry Reid</a>, D-Nev. ——— “She has been nominated for a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court, and we will carefully review her brief litigation experience, as well as her judgment and her career in academia, both as a professor and as an administrator.” — Senate Minority Leader <a href="/topics/Mitch_McConnell">Mitch McConnell</a>, R-Ky. ——— “The decisions made at the nation’s highest court affect the daily lives of all Americans. Our constituents deserve a civil and thoughtful debate on this nomination, followed by an up-or-down vote.” — Senate Judiciary Chairman <a href="/topics/Patrick_Leahy">Patrick Leahy</a>, D-Vt. ——— “Although the Committee is familiar with Ms. Kagan from her previous nomination as solicitor general, a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is a far more significant position. Accordingly, her nomination merits a fresh review based on different criteria.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a>, R-Ala., Judiciary Committee ranking member ——— “I welcome President <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Obama</a>’s decision to nominate someone to be the first Supreme Court justice from outside the judiciary since former Chief Justice <a href="/topics/William_Rehnquist">William Rehnquist</a> and Justice Lewis Powell.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Russ_Feingold">Russ Feingold</a>, D-Wis., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “Solicitor General Kagan has a strong academic background in the law. I have been generally pleased with her job performance as solicitor general, particularly regarding legal issues related to the war on terror.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Lindsey_Graham">Lindsey Graham</a>, R-S.C., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “Importantly, Kagan is a nominee from outside the ’judicial monastery’ — that is one of her greatest strengths as a nominee. But just as it’s important for Supreme Court justices to have a diversity of legal backgrounds, it’s also thrilling to see the court begin to reflect the reality of our diverse population.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Al_Franken">Al Franken</a>, D-Minn., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “Her previous confirmation, and my support for her in that position, do not by themselves establish either her qualifications for the Supreme Court or my obligation to support her. I have an open mind and look forward to actively participating in the confirmation process.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Orrin_Hatch">Orrin Hatch</a>, R-<a href="/topics/Utah">Utah</a>, Judiciary Committee member. ——— “Ms. Kagan is a remarkable lawyer who has worked in private practice, clerked for <a href="/topics/Illinois">Illinois</a>’ own Judge Abner Mikva and Supreme Court Justice <a href="/topics/Thurgood_Marshall">Thurgood Marshall</a>, served as a Senate staff member and worked in the executive branch. She has also blazed a trail for women in America.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Dick_Durbin">Dick Durbin</a>, D-Ill., Judiciary Committee member ——— “She is a surprising choice from a president who has emphasized the importance of understanding ’how the world works and how ordinary people live.’ Ms. Kagan has spent her entire professional career in <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Square, <a href="/topics/Hyde_Park">Hyde Park</a> and the DC Beltway. ... Ms. Kagan is likewise a surprising choice because she lacks judicial experience.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/John_Cornyn">John Cornyn</a>, R-<a href="/topics/Texas">Texas</a>, Judiciary Committee member. ——— “As solicitor general, a position often called the tenth justice, she would bring a unique, firsthand perspective to the court, along with a lifetime of broad legal experience.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Ben_Cardin">Ben Cardin</a>, D-Md., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “As I made clear when I supported her confirmation as solicitor general, a temporary political appointment is far different than a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Jon_Kyl">Jon Kyl</a>, R-Ariz., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “The fact that she has so much practical experience, on a Court where it is missing, should be considered an asset. She has a long record as a consensus builder and is the kind of person who can bridge the 5-4 splits that have become so routine on this court.” — Sen. <a href="/topics/Chuck_Schumer">Chuck Schumer</a>, D-N.Y., Judiciary Committee member. ——— “We are extremely disappointed by the president’s nomination of <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> to the Supreme Court. ... Even with her sparse legal record, one thing stands out — her emotional and legal commitment to the LGBT agenda.” — Tom Minnery, a senior vice president at <a href="/topics/Focus_on_the_Family">Focus on the Family</a> Action. ——— “President <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Obama</a> has selected a nominee with a sound record of legal accomplishment. We call on the Senate to give Solicitor General Kagan a fair hearing and look forward to learning more about her views on the right to privacy and the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.” — <a href="/topics/Nancy_Keenan">Nancy Keenan</a>, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. &nbsp;

ny-kagareax0511

Reactions to Kagan’s nomination for Supreme Court

Sen. Charles Schumer

President <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Barack Obama</a> nominated Solicitor General <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> to the Supreme Court on Monday, declaring the former <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean “one of the nation’s foremost legal minds.” She would be the court’s youngest justice and give it three female members for the first time. 
The nomination to replace liberal retiring Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a> set the stage for a potentially bruising summertime confirmation battle before the court begins its next session, though mathematically <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> should be able to prevail in the end. 
At 50, Kagan is relatively young for the lifetime post and could help shape the high court’s decisions for decades. If confirmed by the Senate, she would become only the fourth female justice in history. 
Obama cited what he called Kagan’s “openness to a broad array of viewpoints” and her “fair mindedness.” 
Standing beside the president in the East Room of the <a href="/topics/White_House">White House</a>, Kagan said she was “honored and humbled by this nomination.” 
“I look forward to working with the Senate in the next stage of this process, and I thank you again, Mr. President, for this honor of a lifetime,” she said. 
<a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> are expected to criticize her for attempting to bar military recruiters from the Harvard Law campus while she was dean. That issue was used against her by critics during her confirmation hearing last year for her current post. 
Democratic officials said Kagan would begin making the rounds of senators’ offices on Wednesday. 
With control of 59 votes in the Senate, Democrats should be able to win confirmation. However, if all 41 Republicans vote together, they could delay a vote with a filibuster. 
Republicans have shown no signs in advance that they would try to prevent a vote on Kagan, but they are certain to grill her in confirmation hearings over her experience, her thin record of legal writings and her decisions at Harvard. 
The senator who will preside over her confirmation hearing, <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrat</a> <a href="/topics/Patrick_Leahy">Patrick Leahy</a> of <a href="/topics/Vermont">Vermont</a>, said, “The Senate should confirm Ms. Kagan before” Labor Day. 
“Our constituents deserve a civil and thoughtful debate on this nomination, followed by an up-or-down vote,” said the chairman of the <a href="/topics/Senate_Judiciary_Committee">Senate Judiciary Committee</a>. 
The <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> Senate leader, <a href="/topics/Mitch_McConnell">Mitch McConnell</a> of <a href="/topics/Kentucky">Kentucky</a>, said his party would make sure there was a “thorough process, not a rush to judgment” on the nomination. 
“Judges must not be a rubber stamp for any administration. Judges must not walk into court with a preconceived idea of who should win,” he said, adding that Republicans would have a vigorous debate on that principle. 
<a href="/topics/Alabama">Alabama</a> Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a>, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee that will conduct the confirmation hearing, said the president’s timetable for a vote by early August “should be doable.” He said Kagan’s lack of experience as a judge was a weakness but wouldn’t disqualify her. 
Sen. <a href="/topics/James_Inhofe">James M. Inhofe</a>, R-Okla., said flatly that he would oppose Kagan. He said she had shown “seeming contempt” for the Senate confirmation process and a “lack of impartiality when it comes to those who disagree with her position.” 
Obama introduced Kagan as “my friend.” Kagan and Obama both taught at the <a href="/topics/University_of_Chicago">University of Chicago</a> Law School in the early 1990s. 
“Elena is widely regarded as one of the nation’s foremost legal minds. She’s an acclaimed legal scholar with a rich understanding of constitutional law. She is a former White House aide, with a life- long commitment to public service and a firm grasp of the nexus and boundaries between our three branches of government,” Obama said. 
Kagan served in the <a href="/topics/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton">Clinton</a> White House.

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Obama chooses Elena Kagan for Supreme Court

As <a href="/topics/U.S._Democratic_Party">Democrats</a> pressed Monday for an early August vote to confirm Solicitor General <a href="/topics/Elena_Kagan">Elena Kagan</a> as the next Supreme Court justice, skeptical <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republicans</a> began casting doubt on her qualifications for the job. 
Sen. <a href="/topics/Patrick_Leahy">Patrick Leahy</a>, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee chairman, called Kagan, 50, a “superbly qualified candidate” who would “obviously” be confirmed this summer before the chamber leaves for a monthlong break. His panel will hold Kagan’s confirmation hearings, and Democrats have more than enough votes to elevate her. 
<a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">Republican</a> leaders made it clear, however, that they’re in no hurry to vote on President Barack <a href="/topics/Barack_Obama">Obama</a>’s pick, whom some of them criticized as insufficiently experienced to serve on the high court. One <a href="/topics/U.S._Republican_Party">GOP</a> senator, <a href="/topics/James_Inhofe">James Inhofe</a> of <a href="/topics/Oklahoma">Oklahoma</a>, already has decided to oppose her nomination. 
Americans “instinctively know that a lifetime position on the Supreme Court does not lend itself to on-the-job-training,” said Sen. <a href="/topics/Mitch_McConnell">Mitch McConnell</a> R-Ky., the minority leader. He was echoing the language then-presidential hopeful Hilary Rodham <a href="/topics/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton">Clinton</a> used to question Obama’s fitness for the Oval Office during the 2008 campaign. 
“Fulfilling our duty to advise and consent on a nomination to this office requires a thorough process, not a rush to judgment,” said McConnell, promising that his party would treat Kagan fairly. 
Kagan, the former <a href="/topics/Harvard_University">Harvard</a> Law School dean Obama nominated to succeed retiring Justice <a href="/topics/John_Paul_Stevens">John Paul Stevens</a>, has never been a judge. While Democrats touted that background “outside the judicial monastery” as a plus that would bring a diversity of perspective to the Supreme Court, Republicans questioned whether she had the skills necessary to be a justice. 
“The fact that she is not a judge is not disqualifying,” but coupled with her inexperience as a courtroom litigator, it “does present a weakness,” said Sen. <a href="/topics/Jeff_Sessions">Jeff Sessions</a> of <a href="/topics/Alabama">Alabama</a>, the top Judiciary Committee Republican. 
He said a vote to confirm by early August is “doable,” but that Republicans would not be rushed and were preparing to provide “the loyal opposition” in the upcoming debate. 
With midterm elections as a backdrop, Kagan’s confirmation process has the potential to devolve into partisan proxy fight that highlights Democrats’ and Republicans’ differing views about the role of a Supreme Court justice, and precedents on hot-button issues ranging from abortion to political speech. 
Still, barring extraordinary circumstances, Kagan should win Senate confirmation on the strength of Democrats’ numerical advantage. Democrats control the chamber with 59 votes, one short of what they would need to forestall the possibility of a partisan filibuster. 
Leahy noted that both Chief Justice <a href="/topics/John_Roberts">John Roberts</a> and the newest justice, <a href="/topics/Sonia_Sotomayor">Sonia Sotomayor</a>, were confirmed swiftly in time for the start of a new court term. He said the same should be done for Kagan. 
“The decisions made at the nation’s highest court affect the daily lives of all Americans,” Leahy said. “Our constituents deserve a civil and thoughtful debate on this nomination, followed by an up-or-down vote.” 
To stop her from becoming the nation’s 112th justice, Democrats would have to abandon Obama and his second high court pick, or almost all of the GOP senators would have to agree to block a vote on the nomination — more than a year after seven of them voted for Kagan to become the solicitor general. 
It’s unlikely that Republicans will unite to try stop Kagan, although Sessions said it was premature to rule it out. But some of her former backers held out the possibility that they might yet turn against her, saying their previous support wouldn’t necessarily translate into votes to confirm her as a justice. 
“As I made clear when I supported her confirmation as solicitor general, a temporary political appointment is far different than a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court,” said Sen. <a href="/topics/Jon_Kyl">Jon Kyl</a> of <a href="/topics/Arizona">Arizona</a>, the No. 2 Republican. 
Sen. <a href="/topics/Orrin_Hatch">Orrin Hatch</a>, R-<a href="/topics/Utah">Utah</a>, a Judiciary member and another past backer, said Kagan’s “previous confirmation, and my support for her in that position, do not by themselves establish either her qualifications for the Supreme Court or my obligation to support her.” Hatch said he was keeping an open mind.

ny-kagannext0511

Kagan should have quick path to Supreme Court, but GOP questions qualifications

Complete Coverage: Elena Kagan nominated to Supreme Court

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