The Kagan Rush to Judgment

Hans von Spakovsky / June 25, 2010

The Senate hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan starts on Monday, June 28.  Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has refused Republican requests to delay the hearing.  The Republicans have a very good and justified reason for that request – the huge number of documents that they have just been inundated with, a volume of material so large that it will be virtually impossible for the Senators and their staff to give them any meaningful review prior to the hearing.  But then, that may be the very reason that Senator Leahy has refused to reschedule Kagan’s hearing.

As we all know, Elena Kagan has never been a judge, so she has not written any judicial opinions that can be reviewed.  Elena Kagan’s academic writings are extremely sparse, so there is not a lot there that would give a comprehensive picture of her legal views and ideology, although what little there is seems disturbing.  She barely practiced law as a private lawyer.  She never appeared in any appellate courtroom prior to her first argument before the Supreme Court last year as the Solicitor General of the United States, so there are almost no briefs, including amicus briefs, that she wrote that can be reviewed. (more…)