Obama's Supreme Court pick grilled by Senate

Facing her first public grilling in the US Senate, President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Elena Kagan, vowed Monday to wield "even-handedness and impartiality" if confirmed to the bench. Should she make it, Kagan will become the 112th justice and only the fourth woman to serve on the nation's highest court.

Reuters

Republicans on the committee will focus on Kagan's lack of judicial experience and liberal political background, but she is nevertheless expected to win approval from the Democrat-dominated panel.

Kagan, 50, struck a pre-emptive blow at Republican objections in her opening statement, vowing to judge "impartially, modestly" and live up to the motto engraved above the court's door: "Equal Justice Under Law."

But the White House's Republican foes are to brand her as more partisan "activist" than impartial jurist. The committee's top Republican, Jeff Sessions, warned that Kagan's "career has been consumed more by politics than law".

Naming US Supreme Court justices ranks among the most consequential powers of the US presidency, as their lifetime tenure typically stretches well beyond the influence of the temporary occupant of the White House.
 

Monday’s Supreme Court rulings

The court found a Chicago handgun ban to be unconstitutional, making it harder for states and city governments to limit gun ownership. It’s a bitter blow for those seeking to maintain gun controls in the United States. The 5-4 majority ruling extended to all cities and states the Supreme Court's 2008 landmark affirmation that Americans have the constitutional right to own weapons. The National Rifle Association hailed the ruling, saying it "marks a great moment in American history".

The court refused to consider claims by the Vatican that is has sovereign legal immunity over the sexual abuse of minors by priests. This allows a lawsuit filed in 2002 to proceed, and opens the way for the Catholic Church in the US to be sued for a litany of child sex abuse cases. The Pope has repeatedly said priests and religious workers guilty of child abuse should answer for their crimes in courts of law.

The court gave a substantial victory to major tobacco firms, rebuffing an appeal on a landmark ruling that found the tobacco industry violated federal racketeering laws by scheming to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. The decision would have allowed the government to pocket 280 billion dollars of tobacco industry profits.