Saturday, 31 July 2010

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Today's Family Focus E-mail
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"Full Disclosure" strategy
by Curt Levey
Executive Director of The Committee for Justice

"With Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan set to begin in less than four weeks, Senate Republicans should be giving serious consideration to how they will prevent the ‘train wreck’ that Ranking Member Jeff Sessions says will result if the hearings are held before the committee has ‘a reasonable time to examine’ documents from Kagan’s four years in the Clinton Administration.  Given Kagan’s otherwise thin record, even she has acknowledged that the 168,000 pages of documents will provide ‘invaluable insight into how she would approach her job as a member of the Supreme Court’ (Sen. Cornyn commenting on his meeting with Kagan).

“Because the Obama Administration must have reviewed most or all of the 168,000 pages while vetting Kagan twice for the Supreme Court and once for Solicitor General, the documents should be organized and easy to release. Nonetheless, Senate Republicans have to take the Clinton Presidential Library’s director at her word when she says that it will be ‘very difficult’ to produce the material in time for the June 28 hearings, no less in time to allow a thorough review.  Since Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has so far refused to consider the possibility of delaying the hearings, a train wreck would seem to be all but inevitable unless GOP senators make it clear that they are willing to use the procedures available to them to ensure that Kagan is not confirmed without a complete release and adequate review of her records.

“While Republicans on the Judiciary Committee could boycott the Kagan hearings in protest, there is little they can do to directly prevent the hearings from going forward on June 28 if Leahy refuses to budge.  However, two different Judiciary Committee rules (link below) give Republicans the power to block the committee’s vote on Kagan.  Rule 3 requires that ‘at least two Members of the minority’ be present for the committee to have ‘a quorum for the purpose of transacting business.’  Rule 4 allows a filibuster of sorts in committee, because at least one minority vote is required to overcome an ‘objection to bring [a] matter to a vote without further debate.’

“Republicans can use either rule in a principled way in this situation.  Nomination hearings are followed by one or more rounds of written questions for the nominee before the committee votes.  GOP committee members would be well within their rights to insist that the written questions for Kagan can’t be meaningfully completed until the committee has had time to thoroughly review her entire record.

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Last Updated ( Monday, 07 June 2010 )