Cornyn questions Kagan’s Supreme Court credentials

By: Tom Benning/The Dallas Morning News

Texas Sen. John Cornyn sharply criticized Supreme Court nominee Solicitor General Elena Kagan today — hinting strongly that her lack of judicial experience, privileged background and role in Harvard’s efforts to bar military recruiters make it unlikely he will support her confirmation.

“The president says he wants to appoint somebody who will understand how the court’s decisions will impact regular people,” said Cornyn, a Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee that will first consider Kagan’s nomination. “I don’t see how Ms. Kagan meets the president’s own standard. Her lack of experience as a practicing lawyer and a practicing judge are things that do not argue in her favor.”

Kagan is the administration’s top appellate attorney, and was the first female dean of the Harvard Law School. She has never served as a judge and had never argued a case before the Supreme Court before President Barack Obama tapped her last year as solicitor general.

“We really don’t know anything about how Ms. Kagan would perform as a judge if she was confirmed because she has no record,” Cornyn said.

Cornyn said Monday that a lack of judicial experience doesn’t automatically disqualify a person from serving on the Supreme Court. But his dwelling on the issue stands in contrast to his comments when President George W. Bush selected his former aide, Harriet Miers, for a court seat in 2005. Miers had also never been a judge, but Cornyn wrote a column in The Dallas Morning News that extolled Miers’ credentials – including her lack of judicial experience.

“Although she has no prior judicial experience, this was true for nearly 40 percent of the men and women who have served as Supreme Court justices,” he wrote of Miers, whose nomination was ultimately withdrawn amid stiff political opposition. “Indeed, rather than make her nomination less desirable, many of us believe that her long career in private practice will be to her credit.”

Democrats pounced on the Cornyn shift, accusing him of political hypocrisy.

Cornyn, who also heads the GOP’s Senate campaign committee, voted against Kagan’s confirmation as solicitor general in March 2009. He maintained that he is keeping an open mind on her nomination to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens, even as he raised questions about her judicial philosophy and temperament.

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