Senate Confirms Kagan To Be Solicitor General

By Keith Perine | March 19, 2009 5:33 PM | | Comments (0)

The Senate voted 61-31 today to confirm Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan to be the Solicitor General, filling the last top-tier Justice Department post in the Obama administration -- and maybe foreshadowing debate on a Supreme Court nomination.

Kagan's confirmation had been delayed while Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., sought fuller answers to questions on several legal issues. Specter, who voted against the nomination, had worried that Kagan would not set aside her personal views while serving as the government's top litigator. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination on March 5.

Judiciary chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., did not miss the opportunity to launch a quick rhetorical attack against Republicans on judicial nominations.

Leahy noted that President Bill Clinton had nominated Kagan to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But a Republican-controlled Senate did not act on that nomination.

"In a move that was unprecedented, has never been seen since, she was among the more than 60 highly qualified Clinton nominees who were pocket-filibustered," Leahy said.

Specter signaled that his battle to pry information out of Kagan had something to do with the upcoming vetting of President Obama's judicial nominations -- including possibly Kagan, who is rumored to be on Obama's short list for a Supreme Court seat.

"The questioning of judicial nominees is implicated here in what we can reasonably expect from Dean Kagan," Specter said.

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