Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin for Elena Kagan

The Senate Judiciary Committee began the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan.  If confirmed, the current US solicitor general would replace Justice John Paul Stephens, who is retiring.  Kagan served in the Clinton administration and was formerly dean of the Harvard Law School.  FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports:

TRANSCRIPT:

This week, Elena Kagan must answer to the American public through its elected officials. After that, she will become a Justice of the Supreme Court, beyond the reach of public opinion.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy described the gravity of the confirmation process:

"The Supreme Court exists for all Americans. Only one person gets to nominate someone for the Supreme Court. Only one hundred Americans get to vote on whether that person should be on the Court or not. It is an awesome responsibility."

The 12 Democrats and seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are the only Americans who can ask Kagan questions. On Monday, rhetorical lines were drawn in opening statements by each of the committee members.

The Democrats were unanimous in their early support for Kagan's nomination, pointing to her excellence in academia at Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard, her work as deputy director of domestic policy for President Clinton, and her current role as Obama's solicitor general.

Many Democrats, like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, mentioned the Citizens United case on corporate campaign spending, and urged Kagan to bring balance to the Roberts court, which they feel has become too conservative:

"It's my hope that your diverse experiences, our thoughtfulness and openness, and your talent for consensus-building will allow you to see the long term dangers to the Court and to the country of a decision like Citizens United, and enable you if confirmed to convince your colleagues to avoid making similar mistakes in the future."

Meanwhile, the Republicans' statements portrayed Kagan as an activist judge who will expand the role of government.

Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama said Kagan's decision as Harvard Law dean regarding military recruiting on campus was anti-military, and that she has attacked civil rights as solicitor general:

"So this all sounds a lot like the progressive philosophy which became fashionable among elite intellectuals a century ago. and which is now seeing a revival. They saw the Constitution as an outdated impediment to their expansive vision of a new social and political order in America."

With Kagan likely to be confirmed in the Democratic Senate, the hearings are an opportunity for the two parties to draw ideological lines. In a 1995 Chicago law Review article, Kagan criticized the confirmation process, saying it lacked "serious substance."

But Lori Ringhand, a law professor at the University of Georgia who recently put out a study on Supreme Court confirmations, says the hearings are an important dialogue between the public and the court:

"What we see happening is more of a dialogue between elected officials, the public, and the U.S. Supreme Court justices. And the confirmation hearings are one of the critical points at which the public gets to, through its elected officials, have its say on the evolution of constitutional meaning."

Also on Monday, the court narrowly ruled that the Second Amendment's guarantee of an individual's right to bear arms applies to state and local laws. This ruling goes a step further than District of Columbia v. Heller, which two years ago guaranteed gun ownership as a federal right. Both decisions were decided in 5-4 votes.

During her opening statement during the Kagan hearings Monday, Democrat Diane Feinstein of California said the decision was alarming:

"We now have more guns than people in this country. They are sold everywhere. On street corners, in gun shows, with no restraint whatsoever. Any type of weapon. They fall into the hands of criminals, juveniles, and the mentally ill almost every day of the year. And the Supreme Court has thrown aside seven decades of precedent to exacerbate this situation."

Feinstein said she hoped Kagan's appointment to the court would help overturn the decision in future rulings.

After lawmakers' statements, Kagan gave one of her own, saying she's ready for the job:

"What I've learned most is that no one has a monopoly on truth or wisdom. I've learned that we make progress by listening to each other across every apparent political or idealogical divide."

The hearing continues Tuesday with questions from lawmakers. If confirmed, Kagan would become the youngest person on the current court. She would also become the third woman on the current court, and only the fourth woman ever to serve as justice.

Matt Pearson, FSRN, Washington