Post 5

On Monday President Obama announced his nomination of the Solicitor General, Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court vacancy. Now that she has nomination, we will be concentrating solely on Kagan and the senate confirmation process she will be facing.
President Obama had many good things to say about Kagan after he announced his choice, calling her a “trailblazing leader” and noted that she is “…is widely regarded as one of the nation's foremost legal minds.” President Obama should know, they both taught at the University of Chicago law school in the early 90’s.
Although the President may have a lot to say about Kagan, “Republican senators said they would give the nomination a long, hard look…” Although this may be the case, the democrats do hold the majority, so a confirmation should be likely. Still, there is a debate going on as to whether she will have a contentious nomination, or a smooth one. A “CBS legal correspondent Jan Crawford predicted that the battle would not be contentious at all.” Even so, there are several issues that the senate will be questioning Kagan about. One of the most sensitive will most likely be her attempts to keep military recruiters off campus because of her objections to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy while she was dean of Harvard law school.
Another issue the Senate may have with Kagan is her lack of a judicial record; she has never been a judge before. This lack of a paper trail will likely lead to many questions from the senators on the panel, without such records, they have no idea of her a potential judicial philosophy. This lack of a paper trail, however, shouldn’t prove to be an insurmountable barrier; many Supreme Court justices in the past had not been judges before their nominations. In fact it may work in her favor; there have been grumblings of a “judicial monastery” for some time.
There is still a hint of mystery around this candidate, supposedly “Kagan has mastered the fine art of nearly perfect ideological inscrutability. Even Jeffrey Toobin, her law school study partner, has virtually no idea what she really believes.” However, for all her ‘mysteries’ she is supposed to be “a proponent of bipartisanship, of "understanding before she disagrees" and of seeking "common ground" according to the President.
Other points of interest about Kagan’s nomination are that she will be the third Jewish member and the third woman to serve on the current court. She will also be the fourth woman nominated to the court in its long history.




Sources Referenced.

http://www.slate.com/id/2253496/?GT1=38001

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100511/ap_on_go_su_co/us_obama_supreme_court

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36967616/ns/politics-supreme_court/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/09/obama-reportedly-nominate-solicitor-gen-elena-kagan-supreme-court/#discussion-form