Kagan unscathed after revelations from past

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100619/D9GEJ6380.html

Jun 19, 5:13 PM (ET)

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tens of thousands of pages worth of documents from Elena Kagan's past have left President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee relatively unscathed and important details about her still a mystery heading into confirmation hearings for a lifetime job as a justice.

Documents from Kagan's service in the Clinton White House, including her own e-mails as a policy aide and lawyer, reinforce the portrait that's emerged in recent weeks: a politically savvy, sometimes hard-edged strategist whose views of the Constitution are at odds with those of conservatives.

In a 1997 e-mail about former Justice Thurgood Marshall, Kagan wrote admiringly of her legal mentor's view of the Constitution as a "living charter" and his concern as a justice for "the underdog."

It's not surprising language coming from a Democratic president's nominee. It's also probably going to underscore the Republicans' line of argument that she will be a liberal activist from the bench.

From the records, there is scant evidence about what kind of justice Kagan would be. Supporters suggest she can serve as a consensus-builder among deeply divided conservatives and liberals on the nine-member court.

In addition, newly released records from the Defense Department that detail her dispute with the Pentagon on military recruiters' access to the campus of Harvard Law School, where she was dean, appear to contain little ammunition for GOP critics.

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