Posting 7

This Monday, Elena Kagan stepped aside from her post of Solicitor general. Although Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan lacks a ‘judicial paper trail’, there are a large number of documents from when she served as a lawyer and political adviser to President Clinton. In fact there are over 160,000 pages of material for the Senators to look over. This pile of documents should give the Senators a pretty good understanding, or at least a better understanding of where Kagan stands in her political views. “Sen. John Cornyn said today that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearing should not be held until senators have a chance to review documents.” It is apparent that the Senate will be relying on these documents to get a better understanding of Kagan as the Nomination process continues.
Over the past weeks Kagan has been “Following in the tradition of past Supreme Court nominees.., visit[ing] the offices of key senators for private meetings lasting about 30 minutes each.” Although Kagan has been meeting and speaking with Senate members, she has said almost nothing publicly, ignoring questions from reporters as she walked through the halls of Congress.
Although she may have declined to answer questions from reporters, she has won over the Senate majority leader Harry Reid, and minority leader Mitch McConnell. Originally McConnell was worried that Kagan would be a ‘rubber stamp’ for the ‘Obama Democrats’, but he was seemingly won over after a meeting with her. Reid was even more impressed with Kagan, describing her as “the right choice to replace Justice Stevens" And pledging to make her path to the Supreme Court as “smooth as possible.”
A Washington post article remarked on Kagan’s seeming silence stating that “[i]t's not yet clear if Kagan is offering a "repetition of platitudes," the phrase the nominee herself used in a 1995 article to describe how Supreme Court nominees speak to the senators during the confirmation process.” But, it does seem that she is saying enough, seeing how she has seemingly impressed both Senate leaders.
Although Kagan was never a judge, she was nominated by the Clinton administration to the federal circuit court for the District of Columbia in 1999. However, she was never confirmed by the senate, and her appointment expired with the Clinton presidency. Hopefully this time, Kagan will have better fortune in confirmation, this time, by a Democrat Majority senate.



Sources referenced

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/12/AR2010051200332.html

http://www.wgil.com/localnews.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=052010&newsid=228

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nationworld/stories/051910dnnatcornynkagan.167797f4.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/05/elena_kagan_does_not_fear_locu.html

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hfm-ZgbV3pWFVmRFbJgpA4THs5kQD9FPC0D00