Sessions: Kagan Not a 'Real Lawyer'

As they debate whether to confirm Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, senators are once again revisiting whether she has enough legal experience to serve as a justice.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, ramped up his criticism of Kagan’s experience, saying her relative lack of litigation work affected her testimony at her confirmation hearing.

“I think a real lawyer or experienced judge who had seen the courtroom and the practice of law would not have tried as she did to float their way through a hearing in the manner that she did,” Sessions said in a floor speech this morning. He served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama from 1981 to 1993.

“Her testimony,” Sessions added, “failed to evidence an understanding of the gravity of the issues with which she was dealing and the important nature of her role in them.”

Kagan’s experience has tilted heavily toward academic scholarship, administration and government service. Early in her career, she worked two years as a litigator at Washington’s Williams & Connolly. Her other litigation experience has been as solicitor general since March 2009.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Kagan’s critics are wrong to discount her experience in government. During four years in the Clinton White House, Kagan was intensely involved in negotiations over issues, such as the regulation of cigarettes, that were closely tied to litigation. She also helped to craft legislation.

“When the justices are called upon to interpret a statute or to determine its constitutionality, it’s essential that they have some appreciation for the process by which that law came to be,” Feinstein said. “Elena Kagan knows the legislative process, and I believe that will serve our nation well.”

Feinstein said she has been taken aback by what she called the strength of Kagan’s record, including tenured professorships at Harvard and the University of Chicago. “An amazing background. I mean, you would think she was 106 instead of a very young woman,” she said. Kagan is 50.

Comments

[joanne]

i smell crab mentality... - Bangkok Lawyer

[CLP]

As a liberal Democrat, it really pains me to have to say it --but Sessions has a point. I am a litigator of over 25 years experience and it thoroughly disgusts me that someone with these credentials is nominated to our highest court. I realize that such nominations are not without precedent. In fact, to my mind, too much precedent. In my experience, the best judges are those who have been in the trenches. The worst are those --like Kagan --with little real world legal experience chosen for their political smarts. It would be one thing if there were no learned, experienced potential candidates among sitting jurists. But that is not the case--so why aren't we picking the very best for our highest court? Isn't that the point?

[Michelle]

Another democrat poll in favor. How Shocking!

[Downtown_resident]

Who's Jim?

[DMZ]

All it is with Sessions is sour grapes. He was blocked from becoming a Judge on the Court of Appeals. Now he is nothing more than a grumpy man who only knows how to say NO. Jim give it up. Even Oren Hatch puts forth a more cogent argument than you.