Litigation

Senate Launches Debate over Kagan

By Peter Hardin

With partisanship on display, the Senate began debating on Tuesday President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan, 50, to the Supreme Court.

Five Republican senators have signaled their intention to vote for her confirmation, and their Republican colleagues who oppose Kagan’s confirmation have pledged not to filibuster.

With Democrats nearly united in her support, Kagan is expected to win a confirmation vote late in the week.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, contended Kagan would be ?an activist, liberal, progressive, politically-minded judge who will not be happy simply to decide cases but will seek to advance her causes under the guise of judging,? according to a New York Times article.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and the committee chairman, said Kagan “will do her best to consider every case impartially, modestly with commitment to principle and accordance to the law,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

If Kagan is confirmed, it would mark the first time in history the nation’s highest court has had three female justices sitting simultaneously. Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general, has no experience as a judge; she has served as dean of Harvard Law School, and as a lawyer and policy adviser in the Clinton White House.

One Democratic senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has said he will not support Kagan’s confirmation. She is not expected to win as many votes as the 68 that then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor garnered last year.

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 August 03, 2010 (boomark / email).