Before she was even announced as a the next nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States, Elena Kagan had taken more heat on one issue than any other – her decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard Law School’s Office of Career Services while she was the dean. The showdown stemmed from her opposition to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, which she calls a “moral injustice of the first order.” Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Republican says Kagan’s exclusion “was designed to obstruct recruiters and not only to hinder recruiting on campus, really, but to punish and demean the military in an attempt to force them to change the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.” Kagan’s supporters say, though she opposed military recruiters, she made her support for service members clear. According to Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), “She specifically reached out to former veterans and combat veterans to make sure they felt not only at home at the Law School, but that she knew what they had contributed to their country.”

Republican senators say they also plan to probe Kagan on issues related to gun rights, state immigration laws and her judicial philosophy. Though many Supreme Court nominees have been accused of refusing to provide substantive answers to pointed questions, Kagan may have little excuse. In 1995, in a book review of Stephen Clark’s “The Confirmation Mess” Kagan wrote, “When the Senate ceases to engage nominees in meaningful discussion of legal issues, the confirmation process takes on an air of vacuity and farce.” Kagan characterized the Senate confirmation hearings as ones in which “repetition of platitudes has replaced discussion of viewpoints and personal anecdotes have supplanted legal analysis.” Doug Kendall, President of the Constitutional Accountability Center, thinks Kagan may regret expressing that viewpoint now that she’ll be the one in the hot seat, but believes it could turn into a positive. “I hope that that will make her err on the side of being more forthcoming than less forthcoming,” Kendall says.

There has been very little criticism for Kagan from the left, though some have questioned her hiring record at Harvard Law School. The vast majority of faculty hires during Kagan’s tenure were white males, but defenders say not every minority that was recruited to Harvard accepted the offers. Also, a number of pro-choice groups say they’re withholding judgment for now – still concerned that they don’t know enough about Kagan’s position on abortion. Kagan supporters, like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), believe they’ll be swayed. “I know the American public will see what we have learned over the past few months,” Schumer says, adding, “Elena will be a superb legal justice.”