Kagan advances; Hatch votes no

WASHINGTON — As expected, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, voted Tuesday against sending U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to the full Senate for confirmation.

Hatch was in the minority, though. The 13-6 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee fell mostly along party lines, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as the lone Republican voting with the 12 Democrats on the committee.

In a statement Tuesday, President Barack Obama praised what he called a "bipartisan affirmation" of Kagan's strong performance during her confirmation hearings.

He called on the Senate to confirm her before Congress takes a monthlong summer break starting Aug. 7.

Strategists on both sides expect a few more Republicans to back Kagan in the full Senate, where Democrats have more than enough votes to confirm her.

On July 2, Hatch was the first senator to announce that he would oppose Kagan's nomination.

Obama has nominated Kagan, the current U.S. solicitor general, to replace retired justice John Paul Stevens, 90, who was appointed to the court by President Gerald Ford in 1975.

On Tuesday, preceding the judiciary committee's vote, Hatch said that a Supreme Court justice "must be committed to the principle that the Constitution controls judges, that judges may not control the Constitution."

He said Kagan urged the committee to look at her life to find evidence of her judicial philosophy or the kind of justice she would be.

"I took her up on that, examining things such as her own writings as a graduate student and law professor, her praise for certain judges, and her actions in the Clinton administration and as Harvard Law School dean," Hatch said. "Ms. Kagan's record shows that she supports an activist judicial philosophy and that her personal and political views drive her legal views."

Kagan is the second Supreme Court nominee Hatch has voted against. In 2009, he voted against the confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

He has said he voted for Kagan's confirmation as solicitor general because it was an appointment for a fixed amount of time, not for life.

"I like her personally, I respect her academic accomplishments, but I cannot support her appointment to the Supreme Court," Hatch said Tuesday.

This story was reported from Salt Lake.

Contributing: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press

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