Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Aussi Murdoch paper view on the Kagan nomination .. reads good .. full of teeny factoids .. lol

Untried advocate Elena Kagan picked for US bench
Brad Norington, Washington correspondent
The Australian
May 11, 2010

BARACK Obama has chosen his chief legal advocate, Elena Kagan, to join the US Supreme Court, the
first time since the Nixon era that the White House has selected a lawyer with no judicial experience.

The US President's nomination of Ms Kagan, the US Solicitor-General, is Mr Obama's second opportunity
as President to fill a high-court vacancy after last year's appointment of judge Sonia Sotomayor.

If the US Senate approves Ms Kagan's nomination, she will become the third
woman serving on the nine-member bench and only the fourth in US history.

Mr Obama told Ms Kagan yesterday of his decision to nominate her to succeed 90-year-old judge John
Paul Stevens, who announced last month he would retire later this year after completing his case work.

Ms Kagan, 50, would be the youngest member on the bench, if confirmed.
She could have decades ahead of her on a court that has no required retirement age.

Her appointment would not upset the ideological balance of the Supreme Court because she is
believed to share similar views to Justice Stevens, who has led the court's minority liberal wing.

Not much is known about Ms Kagan's opinions on key constitutional matters she would help decide.

While she has a great deal of legal experience as a former dean of Harvard Law School and fellow law professor with Mr Obama
in the early 1990s at the University of Chicago, Ms Kagan's lack of a judicial background means there is no record to test.

Under the US system, the president's nominee is tested by the Senate's judiciary committee in formal confirmation hearings. The
decision to appoint ultimately rests with a vote of the full Senate in which Mr Obama's Democratic Party has 59 out of 100 votes.

At the left-leaning Harvard Law School, Ms Kagan is reported to have been inclusive, supporting conservative academics as well as liberals.

The only obvious controversy at this stage that could provide difficulties for her nomination is support for gay rights.

Some conservative Republican senators are likely to press Ms Kagan about why, as Harvard dean, she supported a ban on
military recruiters on campus because of a US law that disallows homosexuals serving openly in the armed services.

In 2003, Ms Kagan joined colleagues in arguing that the anti-gay rule, known as "don't ask, don't
tell", was contrary to the university's anti-discrimination policies. She wrote that disallowing openly
gay military personnel was a "moral injustice of the first order" and "repugnant" discrimination.

Her position, overruled by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, is a public issue once again.

Mr Obama has declared that he wants the US congress to overturn the law so gay soldiers can serve openly.

Ms Kagan's nomination is not the first time she has been picked by the White House for a judicial
post. In 1999, then president Bill Clinton chose her to fill an appeals court vacancy in Washington.

Her nomination stalled in the Senate, never coming to a vote, and Ms Kagan returned to Harvard. She was promoted to dean in 2003.

When Mr Obama chose members of his new administration, he picked Ms Kagan to
be Solicitor-General, the lawyer who represents the US government in the Supreme Court.

The Senate voted 61-31 to back her nomination in March last year, with seven Republicans siding with Democrats. During confirmation hearings, she was challenged on her experience and her views. She kept her answers narrow, typical of such proceedings, declaring that the solicitor-general's position did not require opinions except those defending laws and the Obama administration's position.

When Mr Obama considered a replacement last year for retiring Supreme Court judge David Souter, Ms Kagan
was on the shortlist but the President opted for Ms Sotomayor, who had served as an appeals court judge.

This time, Ms Kagan was at the top of a shortlist of four people: Mr Obama
also interviewed judges Merrick Garland, Diane Wood and Sidney Thomas.

If confirmed, Ms Kagan would be the first court appointee without a judicial background
since president Richard Nixon picked William Rehnquist and Lewis Powell in 1972.

Ms Kagan is Jewish, has never married and has no children. Her addition to the court would mean
it had no Protestants for the first time in its history: there would be six Catholics and three Jews.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/untried-advocate-elena-kagan-picked-for-us-bench/story-e6frg6so-1225864723982