Quite in the Courtroom

Few events in our government are as blatantly theatrical as Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The set up of the room, with the nominee sitting at a large desk between a grand array of Senators and the audience, and of course a large press pool, crouched on the floor awaiting every facial expression and hand gesture.

The current nominee, Elana Kagan years ago called such hearings “a vapid and hollow charade,” Yesterday, as the process began, she left little doubt that these hearings would be no different.

As reported in the Web Extra Section of World Magazine yesterday Kagan said, “It would be inappropriate for a nominee to talk about how she would rule on cases,” Kagan said at one point when a senator posed a speculative question. Nor would she talk about past cases. “My approach in the hearings is not to grade cases,” Kagan said. Another senator asked if she thought the current court was too activist, and Kagan replied, “I would not want to characterize the current court in any way. I hope one day to join it.”

On the program today, I will speak with Emily Belz reporter for World Magazine who has been covering this story live from the hearings.

During the second half of the program, I will speak with Karlyn Bowman, senior fellow the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) re: her recent Public Opinion Study on the Supreme Court.