Elana Kagan will be nominated in the morning to the open SCOTUS seat

[kevin9]

Judiciary panel OKs Elena Kagan for Supreme Court

The 13-6 vote sends Kagan's nomination to the full Senate, where she's expected to be confirmed as early as next week to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

Just one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, joined panel Democrats in supporting President Barack Obama's second Supreme Court nominee. A few more Republicans are likely to back her in the full Senate, where Democrats have more than enough votes to confirm her.

I suspect I can name at least 3

 

[theGringo]

Things to come:

Opposing view on
the Supreme Court:
A big-government
vision

Updated 12h 24m ago

By Jeff Sessions

After carefully reviewing Elena Kagan's record and
testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I
must oppose her nomination.

The American people want judges who impartially
follow the text of the Constitution. They reject
judges who use their power to impose their own
political views — liberal or conservative — on the
nation.

Throughout her career, Ms. Kagan has placed her
politics above the law.

She has never been a judge, never tried a case
before a jury and has practiced law for only three
years. She is the least experienced nominee in the
last half-century.

Her self-identified judicial heroes are among the
most activist judges to ever serve. She even worked
to confirm ACLU General Counsel Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, the most activist judge now on the
Supreme Court.

As a senior adviser to President Clinton, she was
instrumental in efforts to restrict private gun rights
and to stop legislation to limit "partial-birth"
abortions.

As dean of Harvard Law School, Ms. Kagan kicked
the military out of the campus recruitment office in
violation of the federal law's equal access
requirement. Because of her personal opposition to
the "don't ask, don't tell" statute, she demeaned and
punished the military as our troops were fighting
and dying in two wars overseas.

Later, as solicitor general, Ms. Kagan gravely
jeopardized the same statute when she allowed a
severely flawed circuit court ruling to stand without
challenge, despite her sworn duty to defend the law.

Unfortunately, her testimony at the Senate hearing
failed to address these concerns, and was more like
White House spin than a clear and honest response
to questions.

President Obama himself has said that he looks for
judges who will impose "their broader vision of
what America should be." That is what he thinks he
has in Ms. Kagan: someone who shares his big-
government vision for the country, and who is
willing to advance it from the bench.

In fact, when asked at the hearing, Ms. Kagan was
unable to identify any constitutional limits on the
government's power to control people's economic
decisions.

Americans who are deeply troubled by Washington's
growing disregard for the Constitution should also
be troubled by this nomination. No senator should
vote to confirm an individual to any court who lacks
fidelity to the law.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is the senior
Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2010-07-21-sessions21_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip