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Elena Kagan has been confirmed and will be the fourth female jurist to serve on the Supreme Court:
Chalk up another legacy for President Obama, as the Senate confirms Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Kagan, who will be the fourth woman to serve on the high court after she is sworn in, won the job on a Senate vote of 63-37.
Currently the U.S. Solicitor General, Kagan has “earned her place at the top of the legal profession,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Kagan’s background as a Supreme Court law clerk, as well as stints in the Senate and in the Clinton and Obama administrations, also gives her “experience in all three branches of our government,” Leahy said. “This is unique.”
Only five Republicans voted in favor of Kagan’s nomination. Last year, just nine Republicans voted for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Obama’s first Supreme Court appointee.
Today’s yes votes included Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the lone Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Kagan when the panel recommended the nomination to the full Senate on a 13-6 vote. Other GOP yes votes came from Richard Lugar of Indiana, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.
Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass, one of Kagan’s home state senators, voted against her. Brown had joined Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in introducing the former Harvard Law School dean to the Judiciary Committee, but he was carefully noncommittal during that appearance.
In a statement, Brown cited Kagan’s lack of judicial experience. “When it comes to the Supreme Court, experience matters,” he said. “No classroom can substitute for the courtroom itself.”
Kagan also lost the vote of one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
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easton // Aug 5, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Hey, that is fine, a straight up or down vote. We will see though what happens when or if one of the 4 Conservatives or Kennedy leaves the court, then the Republicans will filibuster until 2016.
ktward // Aug 6, 2010 at 2:03 am
From the day of Kagan’s nomination, I contended that hers is not the SCOTUS appointment that the GOP would waste their precious blocking chits on; plenty of histrionics for the sake of appearances, naturally, but they’re saving their ugliest fight for Kennedy’s replacement.
Or, on an outside chance, the untimely death of a Con Justice.
(Dear Justice Scalia: think you’ll retire during Obama? What’s that you say? Over your dead body?)
Ginsburg is likely the next to go– her health is only tentatively stable, and I imagine she wants to leave during Obama. Another relatively painless appointment for O.