By day’s end, Elena Kagan should be confirmed as the nation’s fourth Supreme Court justice, but she’ll attain the honor without the support of one of her home state senators.
Sen. Scott Brown, a Massachusetts Republican joined his colleague, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the traditional home-state senators’ duty of introducing their constituent to the Senate Judiciary Committee at the outset of Kagan’s confirmation hearings. But Brown just announced that he won’t be supporting the former Harvard Law School dean when the Senate votes on her confirmation, expected later today.
“I cannot vote to confirm Elena Kagan,” Brown announced in a just-issued statement. The reason is simple. I believe nominees to the Supreme Court should have previously served on the bench.”