Kagan reiterates that she accepts the constitutionality of the death penalty.

Kagan: (1) Judges are always constrained by law. Can’t import their own political preferences or moral values. (2) There are hard legal cases.

Durbin asks about Griswold (and misrepresents Connecticut’s utter non-enforcement of the anti-contraception law). Kagan: The holding in Griswold has grounding in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. Cases involving substantive due process claims are among the hard cases. [EW: And how would her approach to such claims be constrained?]