12:35 P.M.: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) delivers the opening remarks for day one of the Kagan hearings. He mentions “to provide health-care to all Americans” among the powers granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause. He takes lengthy exception to the Citizen’s United decision.

12:43 P.M.: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) begins his remarks. Sessions says “it’s not a coronation, but a confirmation process.” Among his “serious concerns:” Least real legal experience of any nominee in the last 50 years. “She has barely practiced law. . . .She has never tried a case before a jury. . . .She tried her first appellate case just nine months ago.”

Sessions mentions Kagan’s undergraduate thesis “bemoaning” end of socialism, and master’s thesis supporting judicial activism.

He outlined Kagan’s policy-heavy background at the White House, including her role in the partial birth abortion debate and gun control policy: The gun rights stuff gains poignancy in light of the Supreme Court’s decision:

During her White House years, the nominee was the central figure in the Clinton-Gore effort to restrict gun rights—and, as the dramatic 5-4 decision today in McDonald shows, the personal right of every American to own a gun hangs by a single vote.
Ms. Kagan was also the point person for the Clinton Administration’s efforts to block Congressional restrictions on partial-birth abortions.
Indeed, documents show she was perhaps the key person who convinced President Clinton to change his mind, from supporting to opposing legislation that would have banned that horrible procedure.

He focuses, at length, on Kagan’s anti-military record at Harvard Law. This will be the major theme of Republican questioning:

During her time as Dean of Harvard, Ms. Kagan reversed Harvard’s existing policy and kicked the military out of the recruiting office in violation of federal law. Her actions punished the military and demeaned our soldiers as they were courageously fighting two wars overseas.
As someone who feels the burden of sending such young men and women into harm’s way—and who spent much time drafting and redrafting legislation to ensure military recruiters were treated fairly on campus—I can never take this issue lightly.
Dean Kagan also joined with three other law school deans to write a letter in opposition to Senator Graham’s legislation establishing procedures for determining who was an “enemy combatant” in the War on Terror. She compared this legislation to the “fundamentally lawless” actions of “dictatorships.”

He mentions Kagan’s remarks about the ‘vapidity’ of prior confirmation hearings, and her calls for candor from judicial nominees, presumably to deploy later should Kagan prove less than forthcoming.

12:54 P.M.: Sen. Herb Kohl (D., Wis.) now giving opening remarks. A standard-issue liberal argument that judiciary exists to do more than just “call balls and strikes.”

All opening remarks so far have mentioned Senator Byrd’s passing, and the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s husband, Marty.

1:00 P.M.: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) giving remarks. Hatch is one of the Republicans who is in play to vote for Kagan. He says he never considered lack of judicial experience an “automatic disqualifier,” but only if nominees have extensive experience before the bench.

1:08 P.M.: Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Calif.) gives her opening remarks. Calls Kagan “eminently confirmable.” She colors Kagan’s lack of federal judicial experience as “refreshing.”

Feinstein says she was “extremely dismayed” by McDonald decision of this morning.

1:20 P.M.: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) says Kagan’s “thin record” demonstrates that she has been a “political lawyer.”

1:25 P.M.: Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.) goes off on Citizen’s United. Understandable — McCain-Feingold and all.

1:32 P.M.: Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) delivering opening remarks. He is the first to bring up Kagan’s positions on immigration law.

1:42 P.M.: Darth Specter (D., Pa.) is now giving his opening remarks. Stray note: Kagan has been holding her back perfectly erect and maintaining a look of furrowed-brow attentiveness for over an hour now. She looks like she might crack soon.

1:50 P.M.: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), another Republican who might be in play on Kagan, gives opening remarks. Graham brings up Kagan on military recruiting, but is much more cautious. He calls Kagan’s actions “inappropriate” but that the hearings will bear out “what all that really means.”

Graham’s remarks are the softest so far among Republicans. His repetition of the phrase that “elections have consequences” is perhaps a telegraph of Graham’s intention to defer to the Democratic majority and oppose any attempt to filibuster Kagan.

1:58 P.M.: Here’s Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.). He explicitly says that he hopes Kagan will create “moderate majorities on this very immoderate Court.” Schumer says Supreme Court is moving back to an “era of conservative judicial activism.”

2:09 P.M.: Now it’s Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), rehearsing the difference between “traditional” and “activist” views of judicial power.

2:18 P.M.: Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) says “I have two words” for Republicans on the committee pledging allegiance to judicial restraint. “Citizens United.”

“If that isn’t judicial activism, what is?”

2:28 P.M.: Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) hits the “elections have consequences” note as well.

Coburn says he hopes Kagan will “set a new standard for the Senate” and “really answer questions.”

2:31 P.M.: Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Del.) is reading the preamble of the Constitution. Once he’s through with this introductory remarks, there will be a ten-minute break — thank Providence.

2:40 P.M.: Ten-minute recess. Seven more Senators to give opening remarks. Followed by introductions from Massachusetts senators John Kerry (D.) and Scott Brown (R.). Then, at about 4:00 P.M.., opening remarks from Elena Kagan.

2:58 P.M.: We’re back in session and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) is giving his opening remarks. He is accusing the “conservative wing” of the current Court of throwing aside precedent “at an alarming rate.”

3:03 P.M.: Here’s Senator Klobuchar (D., Minn.). She notes close relationship between Kagan and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.

3:15 P.M.: Now it’s Sen. Ted Kaufman (D., Del.). Kaufman again makes the case that Kagan’s background outside of courts brings “diversity” to SCOTUS. He “could not disagree more” that Kagan’s lack of judicial experience is a liability.

3:25 P.M.: Last and, well, least is Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.) the junior man on the committee.

3:35 P.M.: Sens. Scott Brown (R., Mass.) and John Kerry (D., Mass.) now preparing to introduce Kagan.

Sen. Kerry focuses on Kagan’s role as “point” for the White House on a bipartisan tobacco bill — smart move. Something tells me he won’t talk gun control or abortion.

Unlike the liberals on the committee, who have subtly and unsubtly advocated a liberal activism, Kerry focuses on Kagan’s reputation for fairness and impartiality.

3:45 P.M.: Scott Brown rehearsing Kagan’s “impressive legal resume.” Doesn’t Brown’s endorsement seal the deal for Kagan, come what may?

3:51 P.M.: Kagan preparing to speak. She’s being sworn-in.

After thank-yous, Kagan talks about her parents, who “lived the American Dream.”

She speaks of debts owed to John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sandra Day O’Connor.

Kagan says the Harvard Law motto about “those wise restraints that make us free” captures her view of the law. Her early emphasis is on equality under the law, “even-handedness” and “impartiality.”

“If confirmed, I will remember and abide by all these lessons. I will listen hard to every party before the court and to each of my colleagues. I will work hard, and I will do my best to consider every case impartially, modestly, with commitment to principle and in accordance with law. That is what I owe to the legacy I share with so many Americans.”

4:05 P.M.: With the conclusion of her remarks, Sen. Leahy recesses the committee until tomorrow 9:00 A.M. See you then!