Litigation

Kagan Still Sparking Controversy

By Peter Hardin

Even as Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan seems on a steady march toward Senate confirmation, dissenting voices still are heard.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, announced in a USA Today column that he will not support her due to stance on military recruiting when she was Harvard Law School dean.

The Washington Times published another editorial critical of Kagan, this one seizing on her answer at her confirmation hearings last week to a hypothetical question about the federal government requiring citizens to buy and eat three vegetables and three fruits per day.

Her response “made clear that Solicitor General Kagan views the federal government’s power as almost unlimited,” the editorial concluded.

An opinion piece by George Curry in The Washington Informer asserted that two lawyers’ groups, the National Bar Association and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, “have so far refrained from endorsing the former Harvard law dean amid questions about whether she would be a strong civil rights advocate on the court.” Both groups are partners of Justice at Stake.

A vote-counting article in USA Today reported that eight GOP senators who supported President Obama’s first pick for the court, Sonia Sotomayor, have not committed themselves on Kagan’s nomination.

Nonetheless Democrats have a 58 to 41 advantage over Republicans in the Senate, the article said, and Kagan’s ultimate confirmation appears assured.

Justice at Stake covered the Kagan hearings on Twitter, and you can check out the Twitter reports by clicking on http://twitter.com/justicestake. You also can learn more about Kagan from Gavel Grab and from the JAS Replacing Justice Stevens page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).