I’m sure you’re aware that the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan began yesterday.
You may not be aware that among the very important topics of jurisprudence and constitutional law that she was grilled on yesterday is whether she prefers Edward the Vampire or Jacob the Werewolf in “Eclipse”. Thus is determined the fate of the nation. Today, it’s expected that she will be cajoled into revealing whether she is on Team Coco or Team Leno.
This post at the website for “Humanities”, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities, by staff writer Meredith Hindley reminds us that Senate confirmation hearings are a fairly recent development in government. In fact, none were held at all until the appointment of Harlan Stone in 1925, and were not considered more than a formality until the contentious nomination of Justice Abe Fortas to replace Earl Warren as Chief Justice by Lyndon Johnson in 1968. That battle and the subsequent rejections of Richard Nixon’s first two appointments cemented the political necessity of the hearings.
Even still, the hearings are almost entirely political theater, and the Kagan hearings are being conducted completely for the PR benefit of the Republicans, since her nomination was basically agreed to by the Republican leadership when it was first announced. Unless, of course, she is on Team Jacob, at which point all bets are off.
