Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to filibuster President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, because they complained she is too liberal and would be an activist on the bench.
The Senate has moved quickly, in Washington terms, to confirm a replacement for slain federal Judge John Roll, killed in the mass shooting at a Tucson shopping center in January.
A University of California law professor whose nomination to a federal court was blocked by Senate Republicans may have found a new home on the bench.
Invoking a rarely used filibuster, Republican senators scored a major tactical and political victory Thursday, blocking a final floor vote for a controversial judicial nominee.
Liberal demagogue or mainstream intellectual? The Senate faces a Thursday showdown to force a floor vote on what could be President Barack Obama's most controversial judicial nominee.
Senate Republicans have failed to block a floor vote for a controversial judicial nominee labeled as anti-business.
Dan Lothian reports on the problem of judical nominations held up in Congress and what that means for the federal court
In the words of Judge Roslyn Silver, the situation is "dire." From her chambers in Phoenix, Arizona, the chief judge of federal judicial District of Arizona warns a bulging criminal caseload is being exacerbated by three unfilled bench seats, which the Obama administration and the Senate have, until recently, shown little urgency to address.
Chief Justice John Roberts urged the Senate in his annual year-end report Friday to move swiftly in filling vacant federal judgeships, calling it a "persistent problem" requiring urgent attention.
Lillian McEwen says she and Clarence Thomas were close but his ambition and decision to not drink led to their breakup.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was a binge drinker who had a pornography habit or fetish in the 1980s, then changed radically when he stopped drinking alcohol, his former girlfriend told CNN on Monday.
Solicitor General Elena Kagan was easily confirmed Thursday as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, completing the 50-year-old native New Yorker's climb to the peak of the American legal profession.
As the Senate nears it vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the influential Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF) has decided not to endorse her and to remain "neutral."
Senators began floor debate Tuesday on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, with Republicans mustering little desire to delay a final vote. The 50-year-old solicitor general is expected to be confirmed as the 112th justice on Thursday, and could be sworn into her judicial post by week's end.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court justice.
A new poll reveals most Americans would like to see the Senate confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan to serve on the Supreme Court, but Democrats are more likely to support her.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to become the nation's fourth female Supreme Court justice, setting up a final confirmation vote by the Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday delayed its vote on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan for a week at the request of the panel's ranking Republican.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has completed its public questioning of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee concluded Thursday with witnesses for and against the solicitor general, including former military members who slammed her handling of military recruiters on the Harvard University campus.
The Supreme Court nominee vowed to enforce the constitution when asked for her personal stance on gun ownership.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan received a mixed reaction Thursday from groups on opposite ends of the gun control debate.
Republican senators this week pressed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on the degree to which her views mirror those of her mentor Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom Kagan clerked for in 1987-88.
It wasn't all business at Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing as the nominee's sense of humor was on display.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was hit with a blizzard of questions about politically thorny social and economic issues on the third and final day of her part in her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.
If confirmed to the Supreme Court as expected, Elena Kagan would work with and independently of Chief Justice John Roberts. That's the nature of the court's internal dynamics, and the concept of the one justice-one vote system in which the chief justice is often called "first among equals."
It has long been the dream of many a liberal advocate: to have an unabashedly outspoken, cleverly articulate justice who can take on the conservative majority and inspire young progressives for decades to come -- a "Scalia for the Left," as many have called it.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan faced senators' questions today and used a dose of humor. CNN's Dana Bash reports.
The debate over Elena Kagan's confirmation for the Supreme Court is likely to hinge on the question of whether she is a centrist or a leftist.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan mounted a spirited defense against her Republican critics Tuesday, saying at her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing that she rejects the empathy standard for judges and believes the written law should be followed, including precedents in most cases.
Elena Kagan is asked about her stance on the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy during her tenure as Harvard Law dean.
Elena Kagan was the nominee at her confirmation hearing Monday for the Supreme Court, but you would not be faulted for believing the real spotlight was on those not attending-- the conservative members of the bench who drew so much attention from senators on the Judiciary Committee.
A panel debates whether Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan will be confirmed or fall victim to partisan bickering.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan makes her opening statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that justices on the nation's highest court should be even-handed and impartial in order to promise "nothing less than a fair shake for every American."
Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, talk about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Leading senators on the Judiciary Committee signaled a contentious hearing starting Monday on Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination, with some Republicans saying a GOP filibuster was possible.
The political irony for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is who she is, what she hopes to be and the path necessary to fulfilling a long-held dream.
Ideology is hard to characterize, particularly in judicial candidates who presumably are not disposed to view the law with a strictly political lens. The term "reliably conservative" or "reliably liberal" may be the best a president can hope for when considering candidates for the Supreme Court.
Top White House officials expressed confidence Friday that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan will earn the respect and votes of senators during her confirmation hearings, which begin next week.
Do you want to know more about Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan? CNN's Mary Snow talks with those in the know.
Every e-mailer's nightmare has become a political reality for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, who has 11,000 electronic messages from her years in the Clinton White House now available for public consumption.
The top-ranking Senate Republican refused Sunday to rule out a filibuster against Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court.
More old documents unveiled are offering more fresh signs that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was an eager, tough-talking political player while working as a lawyer in the Clinton White House.
A conservative magazine suggests Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is "hostile" to gun owners, based on notes she wrote in the Clinton White House in 1996.
A broad coalition of law-school leaders have come out in strong support of Elena's Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. But three top academics -- speaking in a White House-organized briefing -- refused to talk about or defend her past views on a range of hot-button issues such as affirmative action and gun rights.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan was a key behind-the-scenes player during the investigation of the Whitewater controversy, while working as a top lawyer in the Clinton White House, documents released Friday show.
A decade before being tapped by President Barack Obama to sit on the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan voiced frustration over her ultimately failed 1999 nomination to a federal appeals court seat.
After being beaten in his bid to keep his seat, Sen. Arlen Specter will make the most of the remainder of his term in office, some observers predict.
Sen. Arlen Specter gives his concession speech after being defeated in the Democratic primary by Rep. Joe Sestak.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on June 28, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, announced Wednesday.
The nomination of Elena Kagan to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has caused quite a stir on the political left and right, as operatives on both sides try to ascertain exactly where she stands.
In 1995, Elena Kagan published a lengthy book review in the University of Chicago Law Review, titled "Confirmation Messes, Old and New," in which she was critical of the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominees.
Elena Kagan traversed the Capitol on Wednesday meeting Senators who could approve her nomination to the Supreme Court.
On both sides of the battle between oppressed groups and their oppressors exist extremists. On one side are those whose prejudices help sustain the inequities most of us are trying to eradicate. On the other are those who refuse to see any significant progress, either because their worldview is seen through a victim's lens or they make their living picking fights.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan received critical cover from moderate Republicans on Thursday on two issues likely to dominate her upcoming confirmation hearings: gays in the military and judicial experience.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan met with Sen. Harry Reid as part of a series of briefings with government officials.
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on Wednesday kicked off what has become a ritual for modern high court nominees: making the rounds of key senators' offices on Capitol Hill while saying little to a boisterous press corps in tow.
President Obama took a key step in cementing his judicial legacy Monday, nominating Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
President Obama named U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Monday as his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
CNN's Kate Bolduan profiles Solicitor General and possible Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
President Obama named Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
CNN's Kate Bolduan reports on the real-world stakes for the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy.
"You are not my people." That was Elena Kagan's blunt but light-hearted declaration when she greeted conservative legal minds meeting at Harvard's prestigious law school in 2005.
For most of American history, a Supreme Court with no Protestant Christian judges would have been unthinkable. Nearly three-quarters of all justices who've ever served on the nation's high court have been Protestant. And roughly half of all Americans today identify themselves as Protestant.
In looking back on his presidency, Bill Clinton posed the notion that presidents are defined by the crises they confront. His own tenure was without a major war or huge fiscal crisis. For Clinton, it seemed to be an almost melancholy reflection.
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