The Hill News

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Friday he would vote against confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

Alexander, a member of the Senate GOP leadership to have backed Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, said Friday he’ll vote against confirming Kagan to that position. 

“I voted against the president’s nomination of Elena Kagan to be Solicitor General and I will vote against her confirmation to the Supreme Court for the same reason: I remain deeply troubled by her aggressive opposition to allowing military recruiters the same access to Harvard Law School as other prospective employers when she was its dean,” Alexander said in a statement. 

Two Republican senators, Richard Lugar (Ind.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), have said they would support confirming Kagan. But most other Republicans to comment on the matter have said they would oppose President Obama’s pick to join the high court. 

Alexander’s opposition is unlikely to fell Kagan’s nomination, but it could serve as a signal that her confirmation vote might be less bipartisan than Sotomayor’s, which saw nine Republicans support her. 

Alexander noted that he doesn’t need a nominee to agree with him to support that person, but said Kagan’s tenure as dean of Harvard Law troubled him too much.

“The use of her authority as dean in that way leads me to believe that she would use her authority as a Supreme Court Justice to advance her own policy preferences,” he said.