Elena Kagan: No significant paper trail. Where have we heard that before?

Hope versus evidence.

It worked before for Barack Obama, and it will work again, this time to place in the Supreme Court his choice for a justice who likely will be a force in American history for the next 25 to 35 years or more.

Elena Kagan, Obama's Supreme Court Nominee, is now set to replace Justice John Paul Stevens upon her confirmation.

If you'd like to know what's in store for America under Kagan's legal guardianship, get out your Ouija board. Kagan has never been a sitting judge, and she has only a modest stack of publications by which to ascertain her judicial leanings.

In my book, the most compelling piece of evidence of her judicial philosophy is the fact that Obama nominated Kagan to serve as his first Solicitor General. (She was confirmed in 2009 by a vote of 61-31.)

The job of the Solicitor General is to "assist the Attorney General in the performance of his duties," "to conduct all litigation on behalf of the United States in the Supreme Court, and to supervise the handling of litigation in the federal appellate courts."

Kagan's most recent experience has been to assist Eric Holder in his less than masterful job as attorney general, and she has been so loyal to Holder and Obama that they want her to continue to support their agenda for the next few decades, even without any experience as a real live judge.
 
For a live media roundup on the Kagan nomination, go to SCOTUSblog.

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