[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 69 (Monday, May 10, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3452-S3453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF ELENA KAGAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to congratulate Solicitor 
General Kagan on her nomination. Senate Republicans will treat Ms. 
Kagan with the same courtesy and fairness with which we treated Justice 
Sotomayor when she was nominated to the Supreme Court last year. The 
rest of the Republican Conference and I appreciated that at the end of 
her confirmation process, then-Judge Sotomayor recognized that she had 
been treated fairly by everyone. Unfortunately, that has not always 
been the case with Supreme Court nominees of Republican Presidents.
  The American people know what they want in a Supreme Court Justice. 
They want someone who will apply the law fairly and impartially 
``without respect to persons,'' as the judicial oath requires. They do 
not want someone to be a rubberstamp for any administration.
  Ms. Kagan is currently a member of President Obama's administration 
and serves at his pleasure in a position that lasts no longer than the 
administration itself. By contrast, today she was nominated for a 
lifetime appointment to the Nation's highest Court. The standard of 
scrutiny is clearly much higher

[[Page S3453]]

now. Now we must determine whether someone who is a member of the 
President's administration will be an independent and impartial jurist 
on the Nation's highest Court.

  The American people also want a nominee with the requisite legal 
experience. They instinctively know a lifetime position on the Supreme 
Court does not lend itself to on-the-job training. Of course, one does 
not need to have prior experience as a judge before being appointed to 
the country's highest Court, but it strikes me that if a nominee does 
not have traditional experience, they should have substantial 
litigation experience. Ms. Kagan has neither, unlike Justice Rehnquist, 
for instance, who was in private practice for 16 years prior to his 
appointment as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal 
Counsel, a job he had at the time of his appointment to the Supreme 
Court.
  But exploring these questions is precisely what the nominations 
process is all about. Starting today, both parties will begin the 
process of carefully reviewing Ms. Kagan's brief litigation experience 
as well as her judgment and her career in academia, both as a professor 
and as an administrator. Fulfilling our duty to advise and consent on a 
nomination of this office requires a thorough process, not a rush to 
judgment. Senate Republicans will have vigorous debate on the 
importance of equal justice under law. This principle lies at the very 
heart of our judicial system. We will diligently review Ms. Kagan's 
record to ensure that she shares this principle and that she possesses 
the requisite experience to serve on the Supreme Court.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________