Newsmax.com
6/27/2010
WASHINGTON – Even as President Barack Obama labeled criticisms of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan “thin gruel,” Republicans wouldn’t rule out a filibuster to block the liberal activism many suspect she’ll bring to the bench, a key GOP senator said Sunday.
Kagan, who as solicitor general has represented the Obama administration before the court, will begin Monday the first of several grillings on her record and judicial views before lawmakers.
“If things come out to indicate she’s so far outside the mainstream, it’s conceivable a filibuster might occur,” said Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
For Kagan, who has never before served as judge, “lack of experience is very significant,” Sessions told CBS television’s “Face the Nation.”
The main question, he insisted, was whether Kagan understood that a judge “can’t utilize the power of the lifetime appointment to redefine the meaning of the Constitution, to have it promote an agenda, in an activist way.” [emphasis CAJ]
Senators, particularly critical Republicans, are eager to hear what Kagan has to say. Her opening statement, expected at the end of the day Monday, will mark her first substantive remarks since the May 10 nomination announcement at the White House.
While Democrats express confidence that Kagan will perform admirably, Republicans say the onus is on her to put their suspicions to rest.
“She’ll have to convince me that all of this liberalism that she’s lived with all her life can be put in a proper place, and when she gets to be a judge she’ll be left of center but within the mainstream of judging,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told “Fox News Sunday.”…
…Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told “Fox News Sunday” that Kagan is “superbly qualified” and “in the mainstream of thinking.”…
The article continues at Newsmax.com
Read also at Newsmax, “Bork: Burden of Proof Now Shifts onto Kagan”
…During her time at Harvard, Kagan praised Israeli Justice Aharon Barak as “my judicial hero.” Barak, Bork said, “may be the worst judge on the planet, the most activist-leaning.”…
