On Monday, we noted some of the top Obama administration lawyers who joined Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan for her confirmation hearing. Others came today.
Robert Bauer, who became White House counsel in January, has been sitting just behind Kagan’s left shoulder today, making him — or the lower half of his face, at least — visible to those watching on television. Bauer did not appear to be in attendance Monday.
Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, the Justice Department’s No. 3 official and a lawyer with substantial appellate experience, stopped in for part of the morning. As a partner in the Washington office of Jenner & Block, he participated in at least 27 briefs before the Supreme Court. His clients included MGM Studios Inc., in its copyright case against file-sharing company Grokster Ltd., and Michael Schiavo, a Florida man whose decision to take his wife off life support made national news in 2005.
Ronald Weich, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, has been at the hearing today, too. He is a former congressional lawyer, working for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), among others.
The audience also includes Charles Fried, who served as solicitor general during the Reagan administration and who was a colleague of Kagan’s at Harvard Law School, and Donald Verrilli, an associate White House counsel who has been mentioned as a possible successor to Kagan as solicitor general. Another former Jenner & Block partner, Verrilli argued the Grokster case before the Supreme Court.
Comments