Litigation

Kagan Would Sit Out Some Cases

By Peter Hardin

If she is confirmed, you can count Elena Kagan out from 11 cases the Supreme Court will hear in the opening weeks of its next term.

Those are cases in which Kagan has said she will step aside, or recuse herself, given her contact with them as U.S. solicitor general. But her planned recusal in these cases is only one part of the overall picture, a New York Times article states.

“[Her] confirmation hearings…highlighted how vague the standards for recusal by Supreme Court justices are,” the article reports.

Some Senate Republicans tried to elicit a promise from Kagan, for example, that she would not hear any legal challenges to the federal health care overhaul law.

They failed. The nominee replied that no only had she nothing to do with the legislation, or litigation against it, but she hadn’t given her views on either.

Nonetheless, her answers to other questions at her confirmation hearing reflected “no inclination to strike down the law,” the article says.

President Obama’s nomination of Kagan recently won a 13-6 endorsement vote from the Senate committee. The full Senate is expected to debate the nomination soon, and ultimately to confirm Kagan to the high court.

Meanwhile, another civil rights organization (see Gavel Grab) has declined to endorse or oppose Kagan’s nomination after evaluating her record.

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) explained in a statement, “[T]here is insufficient information in her record regarding her stance on issues central to NALEO?s civic engagement mission, particularly the protection of immigrant rights and voting rights. In addition, her record does not appear to indicate a substantial level of involvement in public service to the Latino community or in promoting access for Latinos to the judicial profession.”

You 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 26, 2010 (boomark / email).