PRESENTING ELENA KAGAN – AT 7:57 A.M. ET:  Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court start today.  Tickets  are available.  Don't get too close to the orchestra.

Even The New York Times calls Kagan "one of the most enigmatic Supreme Court nominees in recent memory."  In a way, she's this year's Barack Obama.  We didn't know much about Obama either when we elected him to the presidency, and we are paying for it.

No one denies that Kagan is "impressive."  You know, the usual:  High grades, high achiever, good schools, lots of gray matter.  The trouble is, she hasn't left much of an idea trail.  We don't actually know much of what she believes.  What we do know can be troubling.  If she joins the Court, she will be one of three women justices.  No problem there...except for the fact that all three will have come from the heart of New York City.  Isn't this the crowd that's always shouting about "diversity"?  Where's the rest of the country.

The Times ran a profile on Kagan's family.  She grew up in my old neighborhood on Manhattan's West Side, which is kind of liberalism's Vatican.  Reaganites need not apply for housing, or even credit at the local deli.  One gets the impression, through all the journalistic hedging, that Elena's parents leaned socialist. 

So immediately we worry.  Advocates tell us that Elena, when dean of the Harvard Law School, was eminently fair to conservatives, and even recruited some to the faculty.  A true believer in diversity, or something exercising a good career move?  I don't know.

My hunch is that she's a doctrinaire liberal, but I can't be sure.  I look forward to the hearings, and to the manner in which she answers questions.  I hope the questions are direct and probing.  The committee chairman, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who runs slightly to the left of Lenin, will vote to confirm Kagan no matter what.  But Republicans like Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham can be expected to probe.  They'd better.  It's their show.

June 28, 2010