Kagan Hearings Officially Set for June 28
Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) formally announced Monday that his panel will begin Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings at 12:30 p.m. on June 28.
Republicans had threatened to stall Kagan’s hearings if the William J. Clinton Presidential Library did not make thousands of documents related to her time in the administration available in a timely manner. But with the last document dump happening Friday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seemed willing to let the hearings proceed as planned. “The hearings begin June 28. We’re all beginning to get material from the Clinton Library,” McConnell said during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I think some of her views are quite troubling, at least to me, in the area of political speech and the First Amendment. Se has basically argued before the Supreme Court that the government could ban pamphlets; I find that very troubling,” he added.
Kagan, currently the solicitor general, is expected to win confirmation before the August recess. The Judiciary hearings, to be held in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building, will be webcast live online, according to the committee. They are expected to span the bulk of the week.