The White House has taken charge of the confirmation process for Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court, National Public Radio reported Tuesday.
During the Bush and Clinton administrations, the nerve center for the confirmation process was run out of the Justice Department.
Former Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy Rachel Brand, now of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, ran preparations for the confirmation of Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. She told NPR that mock confirmation hearings were held in a conference room on the fourth floor.
“It’s a ceremonial conference room, with formal historical portraits of attorneys general on the walls” around a large table, Brand said. “And we would have the nominee sit on one side of the table and have four or five lawyers sit across from him playing senators.”
Professor Martha Kumar of Towson University said that when there are so many deputy positions that have yet to be filled, “you have no choice but to run the operation out of the White House.”
After lingering in the Senate for 10 months, Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy Christopher H. Schroeder was confirmed just last month.
