Kagan confirmation hearings start in June

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman moved quickly today to advance Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan down a so-far smooth road to confirmation, setting hearings for June 28.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the schedule should allow the hearings to be completed before senators go home for a weeklong break in early July. In announcing it, Leahy was seizing the momentum building behind Kagan's nomination just over a week after President Barack Obama selected her to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

"I would urge everybody to come to the hearing with an open mind, listen to her answers to those questions, and we will make sure that every senator — both sides of the aisle — has ample time to ask the questions they want," Leahy said.

The timetable mirrors the one Leahy's panel followed with Obama's first court choice, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. It would put the Senate on track to meet the president's goal of installing Kagan on the court by the time its new session begins this fall.