The rest of Senator Sessions’ questioning involved a detail grilling of Kagan’s role and decisions with respect to military recruiting at Harvard Law School. The back and forth dealt largely with the litigation over the statute requiring law schools to permit military recruiters on campus notwithstanding the military’s inability to sign the nondiscrimination pledge, and Harvard’s response to the rejection of the government’s position by a lower court, as well as the actual status of recruiting on campus. Kagan tried to answer the questions, and point to her good relations with students serving in the armed forces, but Sesssions’ bottom line was that Kagan’s actions evidenced significant hostility to the military.
Herb Kohl is one of the few non-lawyers serving on the Judiciary Committee, and his questions typically have a common-sense touch. But, even though Kohl is a Democrat, his questions presented some traps for the nominee, and she had to leave Kohl disappointed. Read More
The Idaho GOP just came out with a new platform. Main planks? Idaho should withhold taxes from the federal government, take away people’s right to vote for senators and nullify all federal laws Idahoans don’t like.
Senators Hatch and Feinstein take Kagan through Supreme Court precedents, although from different perspectives. Read More
Sen. Sessions (R-AL) tells our Brian Beutler that the Citizens United decision (which allowed unlimited corporate spending on political campaigns) is like a modern day Brown v. Board of Education.
I have a dream that one day dollars of humans and dollars of corporations will be able to sit together at a table of brotherhood …
Senator Jon Kyl, one of the most adept questioners on the Judiciary Committee, takes Kagan through a series of issues relating to her approach to judging. He begins by asking about the President’s famous comment of last year that judges should have “empathy.” Read More
With Sen. Brown pulling the football away from the Dems, Steny Hoyer suggests Dems may reopen the financial reform conference to address Brown’s concerns.
Markos has just published an explosive post on DailyKos.com’s former pollster Research 2000. Markos had dropped R2K a few weeks ago citing their poor track record. But now he’s released a report he says shows that all at least a substantial portion of the polling R2K did for the site was fraudulent. Read More
During the 1980s and 1990s, confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees focused to a considerable degree on the Roe v. Wade and the Court’s other decisions relating to constitutional limitations no state laws restriction the availability of abortion. Democrats pressed nominees to express support for Roe and its progeny; Republicans pressed for expressions of skepticism. The nominees had to chart a difficult course between these demands.
These days, Roe makes only cameo appearances. The focus has shifted to the Second Amendment cases, Heller and McDonald. Read More