Litigation

Kagan Nomination: About Biography, and Baseball

By Peter Hardin

Because Elena Kagan has a slimmer paper trail than many Supreme Court nominees, the press is looking at her biography for clues about what kind of justice Kagan would make.

A Los Angeles Times article examines the period after her stint in the Clinton White House, when Kagan unsuccessfully sought a  job offer to return to teaching law at the University of Chicago.

The setback was minor. She went to the Harvard Law School and ultimately became dean. Detecting clues from the episode, the Times reports, “She is far less a theorist than she is a practitioner and problem solver.”

Kagan’s family tree is explored by an Associated Press article, which finds it “richly populated with individuals of great determination, intelligence and activism.”

In a slower news period before the confirmation hearings begin, there also are stories about justices and baseball, about polls, and about political back-and-forth.

A New York Times article discusses the baseball enthusiasm and team allegiances of the justices.  (There is evidence she favors the Mets, it reports cautiously). In Huffington Post, Aaron Zelinsky moves from the baseball diamond to baseball analogies in politics by urging Kagan to “bench” the umpire-judge analogy employed by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. at his confirmation hearing.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey reported that 54 percent of Americans say they support Kagan’s confirmation to the high court, although 52 percent said they were less likely to support her because she does not have experience serving as a judge.

Among Republican senators who have praised Kagan are Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Richard Lugar of Indiana, according to a Boston Globe article. She might be confirmed with support from “many” Republicans, the newspaper said.

At the same time Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, denounced certain of her actions as Harvard Law dean in a commentary published by the Kansas City Star, headlined “Kagan’s shameful record on military recruiting at Harvard.”

To learn more about Kagan and the nomination process, check out Gavel Grab or Justice at Stake?s ?Replacing Justice Stevens? page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).