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Senate Confirms Kagan in Partisan Vote - NYTimes.com

By Andis Kaulins

For the record on Elena Kagan, I refer to a New York Times article by Carl Hulse, Senate Confirms Kagan in Partisan Vote.

The vote was 63-37.

Only one Democratic Senator voted "no", Ben Nelson of Nebraska. I grew up in Nebraska and have many friends throughout that great State, but one has to recognize that Nebraskans are about as arch-conservative as you can get. This has advantages and disadvantages. Nelson is voting "no" so he can get re-elected to the Senate.

Five Republican Senators voted for Kagan:

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine
Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
Dick Lugar of Indiana
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Those may turn out -- in future retrospect -- to be the smarter Republicans on the Senate, as I expect Kagan, who is not necessarily our own cup of tea, either, however to be much more middle of the road than most people expect and to have a moderating influence on a Court which is currently hopelessly split into liberal and conservative factions, with Justice Kennedy calling the shots. That has to stop, and Kagan may have a hand in bringing the rest of the Justices at the U.S. Supreme Court to their senses.

Politico quotes Lindsey Graham, by no means one of our favorite Congressmen, who made a very astute statement:

"?Things are changing. I worry the direction we?re drifting. I don?t question any of my colleagues? decisions; I would just like to get us back to more traditional ?advice and consent,? where the [presidential] election is respected,? Graham said. ?I worry about where this takes us as a nation with the judiciary.?"

Graham is quite correct that the extreme partisanship that has developed in the country is extremely harmful and that a return to traditional respect of the President and of the Supreme Court is essential to help get the country moving again.

One way for the Supreme Court to achieve that is to stop appearing as a politically-divided organ and rather to present as much as possible a unified front of Justices to the country, Justices responsible for applying the law in the nation's highest Court. Perhaps Kagan can move the Court in that direction.

Full post as published by LawPundit on August 07, 2010 (boomark / email).