Was “language purporting to be the judgment of an independent body of medical experts devoted to the care and treatment of pregnant women and their children” actually “nothing more than the political scrawling” of then Clinton White House staffer Elena Kagan? That’s the charge made by former deputy Assistant Attorney General Shannen Coffin in this […]
Archive | Kagan Nomination
The Sotomayor switcheroo, and the Kagan nomination
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, by joining the Breyer dissent in McDonald which called for Heller to be over-ruled, contradicted what she had told the Senate last summer. I supply the details in an op-ed for the Washington Times. On Thursday (or perhaps, early on Friday), I will be testifying on the Kagan nomination. My written testimony will […]
Kagan Endorses Estrada
It may not be worth much now, but Elena Kagan just told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Miguel Estrada is “qualified to sit as an appellate judge” and “qualified to sit as a Supreme Court justice” (and then she told Senator Graham she would put this in writing).
Early Reactions to the Kagan Hearings
I’ve contributed some initial reactions to the Washington Post‘s online “Topic A” feature on the Kagan nomination hearings. The general thrust of my remarks is that the Kagan hearings, thus far, are much like what we’ve come to expect in that she’s dutifully avoided revealing much about her personal legal views, despite her 1995 essay […]
Live-Blogging the Kagan Hearings
Various folks have been, and will be, live-blogging the Kagan confirmation hearings. Among those who live-blogged today’s opening statements are SCOTUSBlog, NRO, and TPM.
Sen. Franken’s Bad Environmental History
Senator Franken used his opening statement at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Elena Kagan to argue that the current Supreme Court is an activist, pro-business court. I’ve addressed such allegations before (see, e.g., here, here, and here), and won’t do so here. What I found interesting was his attempt to argue that if […]
“Vapid and Hollow” or Substantive and Illuminating?
In today’s NYT, Adam Liptak reports on a new study by political scientists Lori Ringhand and Paul Collins Jr. analyzing the questions asked at Supreme Court confirmation hearings over the past 70 years. a new study, based on an analysis of every question asked and every answer given at Supreme Court confirmation hearings in the […]
Are Civil Rights Groups Skeptical of Kagan?
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 27, 2010 10:14 am in Civil Rights, Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination
Today’s Washington Post reports that some civil rights organizations are still trying to determine whether (or how enthusiastically) to support Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court. It begins: On the eve of Elena Kagan’s Senate confirmation hearings, her record on race in the Clinton White House and at Harvard Law School is producing discomfort […]
Conservative Law Professor (and Former Tenth Circuit Judge) Michael McConnell Writes in Support of Elena Kagan’s Nomination
The letter is here. Among other things, McConnell argues in some detail that conservatives will likely be pretty happy about Elena Kagan on the freedom of religious and political speech, on free exercise of religion, and on the participation of religious institutions in generally available funding programs. (McConnell is on the pro-Sherbert/Yoder wing of the […]
Kagan, Stevens and Brennan on Bork
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 24, 2010 12:23 pm in Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Elena Kagan may have thought (in 1997) that the Bork confirmation hearings were “the best thing that happened, ever happened, to constitutional democracy,” and welcomed the defeat of his confirmation. The Justice she would replace, Justice John Paul Stevens, appears to have had a different view. As legal journalist Seth Stern notes, after Bork was […]
Kagan and DeShaney
By Jonathan H. Adler on June 21, 2010 9:05 am in Judicial Nominations, Kagan Nomination, Supreme Court
Linda Greenhouse has an interesting column on then-Supreme Court clerk Elena Kagan’s cert memo for Justice Thurgood Marshall on whether to accept cert in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Social Services Department. UPDATE: I’m reminded that the WSJ‘s Jess Bravin has an earlier report on Kagan’s involvement with DeShaney in May.
Kagan Sought to Lead OLC
This Washington Post story on the newly released batch of memos from Elena Kagan’s tenure in the Clinton Administration includes an interesting tidbit: Kagan sought, unsuccessfully, to get nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel.
Kagan Memo on Religious Freedom
The New York Times reports that, [Kagan, as a White House lawyer during the Clinton Administration,] recommended that the federal government intervene in a case to support religious freedom. The California Supreme Court ruled that a landlord violated a state law prohibiting housing discrimination by refusing to rent an apartment to an unwed couple because […]
Judicial Law Clerks’ Memos to Their Bosses
The AP reports: Two senior Republican senators criticized Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan Thursday for memos she wrote as a young law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, saying the papers suggest she lets politics dictate her legal decisions. Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama said the writings show that Kagan was […]
Kagan’s Clinton Administration Memos
The NYT reports on some of the memoranda from the Clinton White House written be Elena Kagan that were released this past week. A new cache of documents from Elena Kagan’s days as an adviser to President Bill Clinton shows that she frequently scribbled notes in the margins of memorandums yet rarely expressed forceful views. […]