Nomination Of Elena Kagan

Floor Speech

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to congratulate Solicitor General Kagan on her nomination. Senate Republicans will treat Ms. Kagan with the same courtesy and fairness with which we treated Justice Sotomayor when she was nominated to the Supreme Court last year. The rest of the Republican Conference and I appreciated that at the end of her confirmation process, then-Judge Sotomayor recognized that she had been treated fairly by everyone. Unfortunately, that has not always been the case with Supreme Court nominees of Republican Presidents.

The American people know what they want in a Supreme Court Justice. They want someone who will apply the law fairly and impartially ``without respect to persons,'' as the judicial oath requires. They do not want someone to be a rubberstamp for any administration.

Ms. Kagan is currently a member of President Obama's administration and serves at his pleasure in a position that lasts no longer than the administration itself. By contrast, today she was nominated for a lifetime appointment to the Nation's highest Court.

The standard of scrutiny is clearly much higher now. Now we must determine whether someone who is a member of the President's administration will be an independent and impartial jurist on the Nation's highest Court.

The American people also want a nominee with the requisite legal experience. They instinctively know a lifetime position on the Supreme Court does not lend itself to on-the-job training. Of course, one does not need to have prior experience as a judge before being appointed to the country's highest Court, but it strikes me that if a nominee does not have traditional experience, they should have substantial litigation experience. Ms. Kagan has neither, unlike Justice Rehnquist, for instance, who was in private practice for 16 years prior to his appointment as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, a job he had at the time of his appointment to the Supreme Court.

But exploring these questions is precisely what the nominations process is all about. Starting today, both parties will begin the process of carefully reviewing Ms. Kagan's brief litigation experience as well as her judgment and her career in academia, both as a professor and as an administrator. Fulfilling our duty to advise and consent on a nomination of this office requires a thorough process, not a rush to judgment. Senate Republicans will have vigorous debate on the importance of equal justice under law. This principle lies at the very heart of our judicial system. We will diligently review Ms. Kagan's record to ensure that she shares this principle and that she possesses the requisite experience to serve on the Supreme Court.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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