Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan pledged at her Senate confirmation hearing Monday to show the “evenhandedness and impartiality” the Constitution demands if she is confirmed, and to offer proper deference to Congress and the laws it makes.
The court must ensure that “our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals,” she said before a rapt Judiciary Committee and a nationwide television audience on the opening day of her hearing. “But the court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people.”
The 50-year-old solicitor general and former Harvard Law School dean appeared on track for confirmation before the high court opens a new term in October as she delivered a brief statement at the end of a day of senatorial speechmaking.
Kagan stopped by the Oval Office of the White House to receive best wishes from President Barack Obama on her way to the hearing. A few moments and little more than a mile distant, she strode with a smile into the committee room and took her place at the witness table — where senatorial ritual then required her to sit for hours while lawmakers delivered prepared speeches from an elevated dais across the room.
Kagan faces hours of questioning, both friendly and otherwise, when the panel meets today, a grilling that she has spent hours preparing for under the tutelage of White House advisers.
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