Ranking Republican Senator Jeff Sessions focuses first on constitutional interpretation. He gets Kagan to reiterate that the only way to change the Constitution is through amendment, but she points out that “the constitutional law we live under does develop over time.” But she says that means that judges have to apply the Constitution to new situations, and that they do that via the process of constitutional interpretation.
Sessions then talks about a new movement to revive “legal progressivism” which says has its origins in the 1930s movement criticizing Supreme Court decisions that held unconstitutional key elements of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. He says that it is an effort to try to change the meaning of the Constitution. Read More
We sent TPM reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro out to mingle among the protestors at the hearings yesterday. But there was a problem: there weren’t any protestors. The only one Evan could find was perennial anti-abortion extremist Randall Terry, who took a few moments to cry on Evan’s shoulder about how he was pretty much the only one who showed up because the rest of the protest crowd was afraid to show up.
“They’re afraid, they’re lazy and they don’t want to look like radicals,” Terry told us.
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Chairman Leahy opens the hearing by playing the classic role of a defense lawyer: give your client a chance to address the evidence against her before she is confronted by hostile questioners. He ticks through a series of key issues. Read More
The lines of attack and defense were set out pretty clearly yesterday. Here is a guide to what to expect today, and some reasons why Elena Kagan may have a bit of a tougher time than other recent nominees. Read More
The DNC today is launching the Accountability Project, which asks voters to keep tabs on Republican candidates nationwide. Their aim — to catch a GOPer in a major gaffe or capture this election season’s “macaca moment.”
Not sure what else to say beside this House candidate down in Arizona is running an ad with a mix of politics as gunfight metaphors and a bunch of footage of her firing machine guns and other weapons. Good times.
TPM Reader RW on Feingold and the Lucys …
Coincidence that [Collins] plays Lucy hours after Feingold declares he won’t vote for financial reform? I think not. We can only hold their feet to the fire when we are united. A very selfish act from Russ, who totally misread the situation and what would happen? What are the odds that we will have the tougher bill Feingold wants in the next Congress? Exactly zero. This is real politics, not third-grade Model U.N. Feingold’s decision makes it more likely we will face another meltdown because we won’t have this majority next time around.