Into battle over Kagan

[Forkboy]

Democrats hail pick; GOP hits her experience

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s nomination yesterday of US Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School, to the Supreme Court set the stage for a clash over her resume and ideology as Republicans warned they would investigate what they called “weakness’’ in her credentials.

Kagan would be the first justice in 40 years to join the court without ever serving as a judge, depriving opponents of rulings to dissect but giving them an alternative line of attack: no experience on the bench.

While Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, predicted her ultimate confirmation and hailed the selection of a nominee from outside the “judicial monastery,’’ Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell signaled that Kagan’s background will be vigorously examined.

“It strikes me that if a nominee does not have judicial experience, they should have substantial litigation experience,’’ McConnell said. “Ms. Kagan has neither.’’

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/05/11/kagan_may_face_tough_confirmation_for_supreme_court/