for the fact that elena kagan is not a judge and has never been a judge. it does bring a different perspective, and as you mentioned all of them currently sitting on the bench came but the through the appellate court panel. she would be the first one to come to the bench and not be one of the nine. it s interesting, she s had a lot of praise for justice scalia as well in recent months and years and invited him to harvard, had a warm dinner for him in his honor. those two you would imagine would be idea lodge cea listen opsite sides of the aisle, of the bench in the supreme court and a lot of people are wondering if she s going to be able to take him on. he is a very, persuasive arguer on the court. she will probably go toe to o toe to toe on a lot of issues. he seems to be well complaining somebody who comes in from the academic world and not from the position of being yet another judge. he came out and said i m happy that president obama chose a nonjudge been on and
one, but gave it up to go over in the health committee on the u.s. senate side. he sort of gave it up at the beginning of his statement, saying that he suspected that this would be the last time that elena kagan will be up you for confirmation hearings. sounds like he thinks she is going to be confirmed. we want to continue, of course, monitoring this for you, but we also have our dana bash up on capitol hill who has been watching and listening to every word. dana? i think orrin hatch, candy, might be a barometer of what we will see going forward with republicans. and here s why. orrin hatch has served on this committee since 1977 and he has voted on a dozen, twelve supreme court nominations and the only one he voted against, talking about nominees for republican and democratic candidateses, sonia sotomayor, and she was one he said good things about, just as elena kagan he applauded in terms of intellect and mind. i m not saying that orrin hatch is for sure going to vote no,
the political circus that often defines washington, end quote. one of my democratic colleagues on this committee recently said that miss kagan s strongest qualifications for the supreme court are her experience in crafting policy and her ability to build consensus. the value of such experience depends on whether you view the supreme court as a political circus or view its role as crafting policy. i believe that the most important qualification for judicial service is a nominee s judicial philosophy, or her approach to interpreting and applying the law to decide cases. this is what judges do. but different judges do it in radically different ways. our liberty, however, requires limits on government, and that includes limits on judges. chief justice marshal wrote in marbury versus madison that america s founders intended the constitution to govern the judicial branch as much as the legislative branch. unfortunately, many judges today do not see it that way, but
second circuit bows to the executive position, saying, well, that ought to be decided between italy and the united states on how that s to be handled. i think that s wrong. but at least the supreme court ought to decide it. i m not going to ask you how you would decide the case, but would you consider it? republicans and democratic senator arlen specter of pennsylvania, a veteran of many processes, laying out how he views the test ahead for elena kagan, on the right, the solicitor general of the united states. now the president s choice to replace justice john paul stevens on the supreme court. we are waiting next one of the leading republicans of the committee, lindsay graham of south carolina, a key conservative voice. we want to listen to his statement. we ll take a quick break. the kagan confirmation hearings will resume in a moment.
activism. if the left is uncomfortable with elena kagan they won t be comfortable with anyone who could be confirmed in this political environment. diane wood had a lot in her background and writings that would have caused problem not only among republicans but among moderate democrats. they avoided that by picking elena kagan. bret: let s listen to the democrat from illinois, senator dick durbin. their opposition some judicious activism. i have two words for them. citizens united. earlier this year in the citizens united case a 5-4 majority of the court demanded to hear arguments on issues that weren t posed by parties in the case, reversed it own precedence, ignored the wilt of congress and ruled the corporations and special