Update on Kagan Nomination

The hearings of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary into the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court concluded on July 1. There is a consensus that nothing said at the hearings will derail her nomination.

The Senate committee is in recess this week. It will meet again on July 13. First on the agenda is the Kagan nomination. It is expected that the nomination will be voted out of committee and head for a vote by the full Senate.

Kagan Confirmation Hearings Begin Monday

On Monday, June 28, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary begins hearings into President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to sit on the United States Supreme Court.

The run-up to the hearings has brought no surprises or revelations which would derail the nomination, and even the expected Republican opposition has been rather muted.

It certainly appears that Kagan's ascension to the Court would not change voting patterns among the Justices, and if she votes as retiring Justice Stevens voted this year, the outcome of cases would be the same. I suspect the real fight will come when a vacancy among the conservative members of the Court arises, because replacing a conservative with a more liberal vote will change the direction of the Court.

Documentary material related to the nomination has been posted by the Judiciary Committee. It is available here.

Kagan Confirmation Hearings to Begin

Patrick Leahy, chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, has announced that Committee hearings to consider the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court will begin on June 28.

Senator Leahy's announcement noted that the Committee hearings last year on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor began 48 days after the nomination was made by President Obama. The hearings on Elena Kagan will begin 49 days after the President's nomination. Senator Leahy's full statement can be found here.

The Senate Committee has also released the bipartisan questionnaire submitted to Solicitor General Kagan and her responses to the questionnaire. The questionnaire, and all the supplemental material transmitted to the Committee, can be found here.

Judge Sotomayor: Senate Committee Scheduled to Vote Tomorrow

The United States Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow morning on whether to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. At the request of the minority Republicans on the Committee, the vote was postposed for one week.

If the majority of the Committee, as expected, votes in favor of President Obama's nomination, it is anticipated that a vote of the full Senate will occur prior to the Senate recess in August.

While the Supreme Court begins its new Term with oral arguments on October 5, on September 9 it will hear oral arguments on an election finance case which was set down for reargument from last Term. If Judge Sotomayor's nomination is approved by the Senate in August, she presumably will be on the bench for the September 9 argument.

Judge Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings Begin Monday

Hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on whether Judge Sonia Sotomayor should be confirmed to replace Justice Souter on the United States Supreme Court begin on Monday. News accounts indicate that Republicans do not expect they will be able to stall or block the judge's confirmation.

Over the past few weeks a wealth of material has appeared analyzing Judge Sotomayor's rulings on the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The plain intent of much of the material is to present her as a moderate liberal well within the legal mainstream.

One report of particular interest is the study released earlier this week by the majority staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, "Sonia Sotomayor: The Criminal Justice Record." The report shows that while sitting on the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor voted to affirm criminal convictions 92% of the time, and in criminal cases voted with Republican-appointed judges on the court 97% of the time. The full report can be found here.

The Judiciary Committee has posted all the material submitted to the Committee in connection with the confirmation process. The material can be found here.

Yesterday, Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee released the names of the witnesses who will be called by the majority Democrats and the minority Republicans. The list can be found here.

I have said before that at the confirmation hearings Judge Sotomayor's most discussed decision will be Ricci v. DeStefano, in which the Supreme Court reversed the Second Circuit panel on which Judge Sotomayor sat, and held that New Haven could not decline to certify a fire department promotion examination on the grounds the examination results had a disparate impact on minorities. One of the Republican minority witnesses will be Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in the case.

To bolster Judge Sotomayor's moderate liberal and law enforcement credentials, the Democratic majority witnesses will include the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Michael Garcia, and Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings Scheduled

The United States Senate Judiciary Committee and its chairman Patrick Leahy have announced that Committee hearings on whether the Senate should vote to confirm the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the United States Supreme Court will begin on July 13. See, Senate Judiciary Committee and Senator Leahy.

Judge Sotomayor: Senate Questionnaire

The United States Senate Judiciary Committee has released Judge Sonia Sotomayor's responses to the Committee's "Questionnaire For Judicial Nominees." The 172 page questionnaire with Judge Sotomayor's responses can be found at United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.