Litigation

Politics Behind Looming Kagan Vote Examined

By Peter Hardin

Senate Republican leaders are pressing to gain more “no” votes on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan than the 31 cast against nominee Sonia Sotomayor when Sotomayor was confirmed last year, NPR reports.

What’s it all about? By way of explanation, NPR quotes Curt Levey, director of the Committee for Justice, as saying Solicitor General Kagan is “probably no worse in terms of judicial activism” than Justice Sotomayor.

Levey identifies, however, “a different political situation. I think a strong vote against Kagan, perhaps even 40 votes, will definitely send a message about the type of nominee Obama can send to the Senate in the next two years, especially if the Republicans win a bunch of seats.”

The Senate Judiciary is expected to vote Tuesday on Kagan’s nomination, with the Senate likely to follow soon. Her confirmation is widely expected.

On Monday, Kagan said in response to questions from Republican senators that she wasn’t involved in developing the U.S. response to a lawsuit challenging the new health care law, and she didn’t give her views about it. She said she would consider stepping aside from hearing challenges to the law on a case-by-case basis, the Associated Press reported.

According to a Bloomberg analysis, Kagan’s confirmation could give the high court “an unprecedented party-based alignment, with five Republican appointees often outvoting their four Democratic colleagues.”

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial urged Kagan’s confirmation, saying she “could have been more forthcoming about her judicial philosophy during days of confirmation hearings recently. But what she did own up to shows her to be well within the mainstream, and her answers demonstrated a respect for precedence, something glaringly absent from the high court of late.”

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 19, 2010 (boomark / email).