WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- An influential Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he believed most Americans would believe that Solicitor General Elena Kagan is qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a moderate Republican who is influential among the party's lawmakers, said Monday that the right to nominate an individual to the high court is a consequence of presidential elections. Addressing the nominee, Graham said: "it's OK to be liberal, it's OK to be conservative, that's just America."
He said a judge needs to be able to set aside his or her personal political biases and rule with impartiality on matters before the court.
Graham's comments followed those of fellow Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) earlier at Kagan's nomination hearing, which appeared to indicate the solicitor general may win some Republican support on the Judiciary Committee.
Other Republicans, including the ranking minority member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) have adopted a harsher stance, arguing that Kagan's lack of experience as a judge and work for the Clinton and now Obama administrations call into question her suitability to sit on the Supreme Court.
Sen. John Cornyn (R., Tex.), a member of the Republican Senate leadership and a former judge in the Lone Star state, said Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the judiciary panel during her confirmation hearing last year that she didn't believe a justice's personal opinions and biases should play a factor in their decisions.
But since then, Cornyn said, Sotomayor had sided with the liberal members of the high court 95% of the time in their unabashedly activist approach to determining court rulings.
Copyright 2009 Dow Jones Newswires
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