Executive Session

Floor Speech

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - March 19, 2009)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I wish to urge my colleagues to support the nomination of Elena Kagan to be the Solicitor General. In doing so, I will make four brief points.

First, Dean Kagan is extraordinarily qualified as a lawyer with a profound understanding of the issues that dominate the Supreme Court's docket. She has received enormous praise for her leadership of Harvard Law School as dean, in which position she reinvigorated one of the premier legal institutions in our country. And of course Dean Kagan is a scholar of the highest order on questions of administrative and constitutional law. She clearly has the intellectual background and sharp intelligence necessary to represent the interests of the United States with the utmost skill and clarity. She testified in her hearing and in numerous followup questions that she will put the interests of the United States ahead of any of her own beliefs and defend congressional statutes with the vigor and force we expect of the office. She has worked in private practice, as a clerk to the Supreme Court, and as a counsel in the White House. I applaud her willingness to return to Government service. Now, some critics have pointed out that she has not argued before the Supreme Court before. As an attorney who has argued before that Court, I can attest that appearing before the Court indeed is a daunting experience. But Solicitors General Ken Starr, Charles Fried, Robert Bork, and Wade McCree similarly had not argued before the Court. This fact leaves me with no doubt that Dean Kagan will meet the highest expectations of her and that she will excel as Solicitor General.

Second, I would point out that a very large number of leading lawyers have joined me in concluding that Dean Kagan will be an excellent Solicitor General. Dean Kagan's nomination to be Solicitor General has been endorsed by every Solicitor General who served from 1985 to 2009--Charles Fried, Ken Starr, Drew Days, Walter Dellinger, Seth Waxman, Ted Olson, Paul Clement, and Greg Garre. That is not the Solicitors General from every Democratic administration--that is every Solicitor General over the last 24 years, including conservatives Ted Olson and Ken Starr. Surely their expert opinions should provide a strong indication that Dean Kagan will be an excellent Solicitor General.

Third, it is worth noting the historic nature of this nomination. If confirmed, Dean Kagan would become the first woman confirmed by the Senate to hold the Office of Solicitor General of the United States. Dean Kagan has spent her lifetime breaking glass ceilings, and she is poised to break another for the benefit of generations of women to come.

Finally, I would like to commend Chairman Leahy for his continuing determination to confirm as many Department of Justice nominees as quickly as possible. The United States deserves the best advocate possible before the Supreme Court. We should confirm Dean Kagan and let her get to work. And we should swiftly confirm the remaining nominees to the Department of Justice. I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Leahy in that effort.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source