Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Monday said that he will work to slow the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan until senators have access to papers relating to her work as a policy adviser in the Clinton White House, CongressDaily reports. While Sessions does not have power to change the committee's schedule, Sessions' threat "set[s] the stage for a partisan showdown" over the documents' release and the speed of Kagan's confirmation process, according to CongressDaily.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) scheduled the start of confirmation hearings for June 28. President Obama has said he hopes Kagan will be confirmed prior to the Congressional August recess (CongressDaily, 5/24).
The documents in question relate to Kagan's work as an adviser in the Clinton administration. In one memo from 1997, Kagan urged the president to support a compromise position that would have allowed an exception for protecting the health of a pregnant woman in a bill banning so-called "partial-birth" abortion (Women's Health Policy Report, 5/17).
Kagan, who recently stepped down from her role as solicitor general, has never served as a judge. Republicans and some Democrats hope to learn more about how she would rule as a justice by reviewing her files from the Clinton administration.
The nation's archivist last week told Leahy and Sessions that documents from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library would be released beginning June 4 and that staff from the archivist's office would work to accommodate the committee's June 28 deadline. Sessions said Monday, "We're heading to what could be a train wreck. I don't believe that this committee can go forward with an adequate hearing" unless Kagan's Clinton documents are released (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/San Diego Union-Tribune, 5/24).
White House Plays More Central Role in Kagan Confirmation Process
Some outside groups have said that the Obama administration has become "overbearing" in its handling of the Kagan confirmation process, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Department of Justice served as the "nerve center" for shepherding Supreme Court nominees through the confirmation process, according to "Morning Edition." Kagan's mock confirmation hearings are expected to occur in the White House instead of DOJ. Members of the White House counsel's office, White House legislative affairs office and Vice President Biden's staff have been accompanying Kagan to her meetings with senators. Previous nominees were joined only by DOJ employees (Shapiro, "Morning Edition," NPR, 5/25).
Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
© 2010 National Partnership for Women & Families. All rights reserved.