The End of the Beginning of the Kagan Hearing

Hans von Spakovsky / June 28, 2010

We didn’t hear any questioning of Elena Kagan in the first day of her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but we did get the opening statements of all of the senators on the Committee and we heard from the nominee herself. The Democrats have 12 members including the chairman, Patrick Leahy (VT), and Herb Kohl (WI), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Russ Feingold (WI), Arlen Specter (PA), Chuck Schumer (NY), Dick Durbin (IL), Benjamin Cardin (MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Ted Kaufman (DE), and Al Franken (MN). The Republicans only have seven members, including the ranking Republican, Jeff Sessions (AL), and Orrin Hatch (UT), Chuck Grassley (IA), Jon Kyl (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), John Cornyn (TX), and Tom Coburn (OK).

The battle lines were very clearly drawn. Although Kagan was not asked questions directly, we did get a lot of questioning from the Republicans about Kagan’s record as a law clerk, a political lawyer in the Clinton White House, an academic, and as Solicitor General. Based on their opening statements, we are clearly going to get questions tomorrow about her support for socialism, her ejection of military recruiters from the Harvard campus, her praise of liberal activist judges like Aharon Barak, her support for restrictions on gun ownership, her opposition to enforcement of federal immigration laws by states, her opposition to restrictions on partial-birth abortions, her comparison of our treatment of enemy combatants to a “dictatorship,” and her support for government censorship of political speech. (more…)