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WASHINGTON – In a vote divided largely along party lines, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to the full Senate.

The 13-6 vote – with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham casting the only GOP vote in Kagan’s favor – was identical to the committee’s vote last year on the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with all Democrats voting for Kagan.

Graham said that although he disagrees with Kagan on key issues, he believes that Kagan is a qualified candidate and that is the standard by which the Senate should vote.

“There will be a time where I will disagree” with a Supreme Court nomination, Graham explained before his vote. “But I think that should be the exception, not the rule.”

If Kagan is confirmed by the full Senate to take the seat vacated by retired Justice John Paul Stevens, the Court for the first time will have three women sitting simultaneously on the bench. A full Senate vote is expected within weeks.

While Kagan is expected to win confirmation, Graham is the first Republican senator to support her. At the time of the committee vote, sixteen GOP lawmakers had indicated their intention to vote against Kagan, according to a New York Times tally.

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa. – who voted against Kagan’s confirmation as solicitor general – voted in favor of her confirmation, but still voiced “grave concerns about her failure to answer questions that I felt ought to have been answered” during the confirmation hearings.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee’s chairman, joined other democratic members in heaping praise on the candidate.

“Kagan demonstrated an impressive knowledge of the law and fidelity to it” during the hearings, Leahy said. “She spoke of judicial restraint, her respect for our democratic institutions, and her commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law. She made clear that she will base her approach to deciding cases on the law and the Constitution, not politics or an ideological agenda.”

Ranking Member Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., disagreed, saying that Kagan espouses a philosophy of judicial activism and expressing his fear that Kagan would “place her politics above the law.”

- Kimberly Atkins

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