The Week: Most Recent Supreme Court:Elena Kagan's Nomination

How will Elena Kagan make her mark? 5 theories

The Week — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:03:00 -0400

Elena Kagan was sworn in Saturday as the 112th Justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan, previously the Obama administration's solicitor general, is the fourth female justice in the court's history, and the second (after Justice Sonia Sotomayor) named to the court by President Obama. Court watchers expect Kagan to be a consensus-building moderate who, since she's replacing the liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, won't radically alter the balance of the court. If that's so, how will Kagan make an impact? (Watch a Newsweek reporter call Kagan "open-minded")

1. On immigration, Kagan will make...

Elena Kagan's confirmation: Reactions

The Week — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:15:00 -0400

The Senate confirmed Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the 112th justice of the Supreme Court Thursday on a 63-37 vote, carrying the support of 58 Democrats and five Republicans. Kagan got five fewer votes than Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, and five more than Justice Samuel Alito in 2006. (Watch the Senate's vote.) Here are some initial reactions from commentators:

Let's hear it for the ladies: "Because Kagan is considered a liberal, the ideological makeup of the court is not expected to change," says Jonathan Capehart in The Washington Post. "But the gender makeup will. For the first time in...

Kagan's confirmation hearing: What we learned

The Week — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:45:00 -0400

There's some consensus that Solicitor General Elena Kagan did not live up to her own "Kagan Standard" for Supreme Court nominees — she "artfully dodged" many questions about her views on several key issues — but the three days of questioning by senators actually revealed quite a bit about the nominee. Here are eight of the most interesting things we learned about the woman who will almost certainly be our next Supreme Court justice:

1. She's not an "umpire," or a robot
Asked about Chief Justice John Roberts' famous confirmation quip that a Supreme Court jurist should act like an "umpire...

Are the Kagan hearings even about Kagan anymore?

The Week — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:25:00 -0400

The senators tasked with determining Elena Kagan's suitability for Supreme Court are barely even engaging with her, says Stuart Taylor Jr. in Newsweek. Instead, they're talking to their political bases, offering "warmed over" rhetoric on hot-button issues that may impact the November election — but have little to do with Kagan or what kind of justice she will make. What a shame. Here's an excerpt:

"As Elena Kagan’s hearings ground through their third day, with confirmation virtually assured, viewers learned little that was new about the nominee. Mostly they saw senatorial skirmishes...

The Kagan confirmation: Republicans vs. Thurgood Marshall

The Week — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:06:00 -0400

In an attempt to pin down Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Republicans have gone after another target — her former boss and personal hero, late Justice Thurgood Marshall. During the second day of Kagan's confirmation hearings, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) labeled Marshall — the lawyer responsible for victory in 1954's Brown vs. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation, and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court — "a judicial activist." And Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Marshall's legal views "do not comport with the proper role of a judge or judicial...

Is Kagan a sure thing?

The Week — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:13:00 -0400

Elena Kagan faces her first questions from senators on Tuesday, after opening her confirmation hearing by telling members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that her approach as a Supreme Court justice would be "modest" and "properly deferential" to Congress and the president. Conservative senators have expressed some skepticism about Kagan, saying that, since the U.S. solicitor general and former dean of Harvard Law School has never been a judge, she will need to candidly explain her legal philosophy. Still, with little heated opposition, is Kagan's confirmation assured? (Watch a CNN debate over...

Elena Kagan's big week

The Week — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:25:00 -0400

U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan has her first big test this week in her ascent to the Supreme Court, as she faces a ritual grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Since apparently nothing explosive has surfaced in the 160,000 pages of documents released on her, the hearings offer Republicans' their best chance of derailing Kagan's nomination. (Watch an ABC discussion previewing the hearings.) Here's a brief look at what to expect:

What's the schedule this week?
Senators begin opening statements Monday afternoon, then Kagan will face questions Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Who are her...

Top 5 new insights into Elena Kagan

The Week — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:30:00 -0400

In what could prove the most enlightening window yet into the personality and politics of the famously opaque Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, the Clinton Presidential Library last week released 75,000 emails sent to and from Kagan in the late 1990s, when she was a domestic policy adviser for Bill Clinton. Senators will be delving into Kagan's past when her confirmation hearing starts on June 28. Thanks to the emails and the media's compulsion to scrutinize them, here are five things we already know about her:

1. Kagan is no stranger to foul language: Kagan occasionally peppered...

What do Elena Kagan's Clinton notes say about her?

The Week — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:34:00 -0400

The Clinton Library has released a cache of documents from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's days as an adviser to President Bill Clinton. The 46,700 pages of memos, correspondence and reports, which are available in full online, include comments on a vast range of national issues, from campaign finance reform and education to abortion and gay marriage. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and political commentators have scoured the documents in an attempt to shed light on Kagan's still-murky political views. What, if anything, do Kagan's notes say about what kind of justice she would be...

Newt Gingrich vs. Elena Kagan

The Week — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:33:00 -0400

Newt Gingrich has waded into the Supreme Court debate, demanding that President Obama withdraw Elena Kagan's nomination because of her "anti-military" views. Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker, has seized on Kagan's decision to bar military recruiters from the Harvard Law School's official career center in 2004 because of concerns over "don't ask, don't tell." But since Republicans have said they won't block Kagan's nomination, what is Gingrich hoping to accomplish? (Watch The Week's Sunday Talk Show Briefing about Kagan's clean record)

Nothing. He's just happy to be on TV: If...

Is Elena Kagan's clean slate an asset?

The Week — Mon, 17 May 2010 09:43:00 -0400

Kagan's sexuality is a distraction

The Week — Mon, 17 May 2010 08:08:00 -0400

If Elena Kagan is confirmed as the next new justice on the Supreme Court, says Joan Vennochi in The Boston Globe, she'll be in a position of awesome power. Yet, judging by the media coverage of her nomination, people don't seem too curious about her legal philosophy on the separation of powers, or civil liberties in a time of war. Kagan is a "single career woman with short hair," so, of course, all anyone wants to know is whether she's a lesbian. Some people justify the questions by insisting "sexual preference affects a jurist’s objectivity." The truth is we'll never know what kind of justice...

Kagan's controversial moments: A timeline

The Week — Fri, 14 May 2010 08:38:00 -0400

Elena Kagan's career has provided scant evidence of her judicial beliefs—the Supreme Court nominee is not a judge, so there are no rulings to suggest how she'll rule on the issues that divide Americans. But journalists and opponents have still managed to dig up moments from her past that appear likely to ignite debate at her confirmation hearings. Here's a list of what could be used against her, or for her, and when it happened:

Kagan's 'liberal principles,' December 1980:
"I absorbed liberal principles early," Kagan writes in The Daily Princetonian newspaper in 1980, a few weeks...

Rescuing Elena Kagan from "smears"

The Week — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:30:00 -0400

Some of the reactions to Elena Kagan’s ascent toward the Supreme Court reflect a shameful prejudice and an entrenched partisanship that say less about her qualifications than about the imperfections of America and the ugliness of our politics.

First, take the question of her sexual orientation. Bloggers right and left, gay and straight, have speculated or asserted that Kagan is a lesbian. After all, she’s 50, young for the court, which is partly why she was chosen, but very old to be unmarried; that seems to be enough to establish or strongly suggest that she is “openly gay,&rdquo...

Will the Supreme Court really reflect America?

The Week — Thu, 13 May 2010 13:10:00 -0400

If Elena Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, four of the nine justices will have grown up in New York — Kagan in Manhattan; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Brooklyn; Sonia Sotomayor, the Bronx; and Antonin Scalia, Queens. The court would also be entirely Ivy League–educated, and consist of three Jews and six Catholics. Can such a court represent the rest of America? (Watch Elena Kagan discuss her New York roots)

No. New York is unique: While this shouldn't matter to those who judge justices on their ability to "regard the law with utter neutrality," says Kathleen Parker in The Washington...

The 5 most disastrous Supreme Court nominees

The Week — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:40:00 -0400

As Elena Kagan is witnessing first-hand, it's a time-honored tradition for critics to undermine a Supreme Court nominee by drawing unflattering comparisons to failed nominees of the past. Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean, generally enjoys broad support and seems likely to be confirmed as President Obama intends — unlike these five ill-starred judicial hopefuls, to whom, in some cases, she's already being compared:

1. "My Little Crony"
Who: Harriet Miers, nominated by George W. Bush in 2005
Why was she a disaster? The nomination of Miers, a close friend of the Bush family, prompted charges...