Kagan Passes Senate Vote

Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan was confirmed as the nation’s first female Solicitor General yesterday after the United States Senate voted 61-31 in favor of her nomination.

Kagan’s nomination as Solicitor General, the federal government’s representative before the Supreme Court, was initially met with enthusiasm by Senators on both sides of the political aisle, but yesterday’s vote brought unexpected Republican opposition.

Much of Kagan’s bi-partisan support evaporated in recent months after a spat with Sen. Arlen Specter over her unwillingness to answer several questions from the Pennsylvania Republican about her legal views.

During debate on the Senate floor yesterday, Republican Senators criticized Kagan as a result.

“I think we have to pay a little more attention, and I’ve gone to some length to try to find out more about Dean Kagan. But in the absence of being able to do so and really have a judgment on her qualifications, I’m constrained to vote no,” Specter said during the debate.

Kagan received additional criticism over her opposition to the Solomon Amendment, a measure allowing military recruiters on college campuses, and lack of appelate court experience.

But it was Kagan’s unwillingness to answer questions posed by Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, that caused support for her nomination to wither among Republicans.

Kagan garnered just eight Republican votes in support of her nomination.

In a letter to Kagan after her confirmation hearing, Specter asked the Harvard Dean to elaborate on her responses to written questions. But Kagan declined, arguing that the Solicitor General would be unwise to explain personal opinions before assuming an office charged with representing the United States government.

Professor Charles Fried, a prominent conservative at Harvard Law School and former Solicitor General under President Reagan, dismissed the criticism by some Republican Senators as political posturing that followed a long line of right-wing opposition to the Obama administration’s nominations and characterized their disapproval as “a pretext from the beginning to the end.”

“She was at least as forthcoming as anybody, and she was as forthcoming as she ought to be,” Fried said.

Fried and other former Solicitor Generals submitted a joint letter to the Judiciary Committee endorsing Kagan’s nomination.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, lambasted Kagan for opposing the Solomon Amendment and challenged her integrity.

“The Solicitor General should have a record of following the law, not flouting it,” Sessions said in reference to her opposition to allowing military recruiters on campus.

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.