Note to readers: beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, Tuesday February 10, we will provide live coverage of the executive nominations of Elena Kagan to be Solicitor General of the United States Department of Justice and Thomas J. Perrelli to be Associate Attorney General. In the LiveBlog, for which there is an automated reminder option below, we will relay the relevant questions and responses of the hearings as quickly as possible.
The committee questionnaire and letters received in connection with Kagan’s nomination can be found at the Judiciary Committee’s Web site here. Documents for Perrelli can be found here.
Kagan, 48, clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall during the October 1987 term and later taught at the University of Chicago School of Law at the same time as President Obama. She served in the Clinton White House from 1995 to 1999, and, after moving to Harvard Law School, was named Dean in 2003.
She has never argued before the Supreme Court, but did join a faculty amicus brief in the Court and in the Third Circuit supporting the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights’ (FAIR) challenge to the Solomon Amendment. She did not participate in the drafting of the brief, but will likely face questioning during the hearing tomorrow on her views about military recruiters and university funding. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) criticized Kagan’s position on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and her involvement in the FAIR case during the confirmation hearing of Attorney General Eric Holder.
Kagan’s legal scholarship and university courses have centered on First Amendment law and administrative law, specifically the relationship between the President and the agencies. Her most recent publication was on the role of the White House Counsel.
In her role as Dean of Harvard Law School, she has been highly praised by her colleagues for uniting a sometimes politically divisive faculty and for encouraging intellectual diversity. Eight former solicitors general–from both Republican and Democratic administrations–joined a letter wholeheartedly endorsing Kagan for the position.
If confirmed, Kagan will be the first female Solicitor General. Former Attorney General Janet Reno–the first female to serve in that position–and six other prominent women from the Department of Justice who were among the first in their fields signed a letter emphasizing this confirmation as a milestone for the DOJ and for women in the legal profession.
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