Litigation

What if Former Fundraiser Kagan Judges Donors?

By Peter Hardin

As Harvard Law School dean, Elena Kagan raised more than $300 million between 2003 and 2008.

Does her success raise issues if Kagan is confirmed to the Supreme Court, and then sees Harvard donors appearing before her as attorneys or parties in a case? An Associated Press article raises the question, and it seeks out experts for their views:

• To require Kagan as justice to recuse herself from a case, the link probably would not be close enough if lawyers or law firms who gave money to Harvard were to represent parties appearing before the court, said Arthur Hellman, a University of Pittsburgh law school professor.
• But it’s “a closer question” if a party in a case before the court was an individual or company who donated to Harvard at her request, Hellman said.
• “You need two things,” said Stephen Gillers of the New York University Law School. “You need a contribution so large that we could say that Dean Kagan would feel a sense of great personal gratitude and then you need a case in which the donor had a significant personal or business interest before the court.”

With her confirmation hearings concluded, Kagan  awaits a vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected later this month. Justice at Stake covered the Kagan hearings on Twitter, and you can check out the Twitter reports by clicking on http://twitter.com/justicestake. You also can learn more about Kagan from Gavel Grab and from the JAS Replacing Justice Stevens page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 07, 2010 (boomark / email).