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Solicitor General Elena Kagan on the third day of her confirmation hearings. (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice)

Senate Judiciary Committee members on Wednesday tried to get an in-depth look inside the Solicitor General’s office and a better understanding of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan during her third and final day before the panel. But Kagan’s remarks left some senators unsatisfied.

Senators pressed Kagan during a seven-hour back-and-forth to discuss matters connected to her office and disclose internal deliberations among her colleagues, including discussions about two cases that had political implications.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) asked the nominee to say whether her office spoke with the White House about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce v. Candelaria or Lopez-Rodriguez v. Holder cases. The Solicitor General’s office urged the Supreme Court to take up the U.S. Chamber of Commerce case, which questions the legality of an Arizona law that would penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. But her office advised the court not to consider the Lopez-Rodriguez case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which ruled that information given to immigration officials without a warrant or invitation could not be used in a civil immigration hearing.

Kagan said her office made the “correct decision on the law” on the two cases. But she declined to say whether her office and the White House discussed the cases.

“The Solicitor General’s office does from time to time – and I think this is true in every administration – have some communications with members of the White House with respect to particular cases,” Kagan said. “That is not a surprising thing and I think is true in every administration. But I don’t think it would be right to talk about internal deliberations in any particular case.”

Kyl was unsatisfied with Kagan’s answer.

While Kyl said he wouldn’t be shocked if the White House had a political interest in the cases, he said he would be surprised if the Solicitor General’s office made its decisions based on the “political advice or efforts” of the White House.

“I think that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with the committee understanding whether or not your decision was based on considerations other than purely legal especially if it came in the form of requests by the White House or people within the White House because of the rather political nature of these two cases,” Kyl said.

The nominee also declined to tell a testy Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) whether she would vote to hear several cases that may come before the court because she is still a party in the cases as Solicitor General. She added that she didn’t “want to count [her] chickens before” confirmation.

“You are counting your chickens right now,” Specter said. “I am one of your chickens. Potentially.”

But Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking panel Republican, tried to make the most of Kagan’s refusal to speak openly on issues that may involve her office by bringing up a Republican cause de célèbre.

The senator invoked Miguel Estrada, who befriended Kagan while they attended Harvard Law School and was President George W. Bush’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Estrada’s nomination was filibustered by Democrats who wanted internal memos he authored during his time in the Solicitor General’s office under President George H.W. Bush.

Every living Solicitor General – including Kagan — supported the George W. Bush administration’s refusal to turn over the memos. Kagan, who said she supported Estrada’s nomination, said they understand “how important confidentiality within the office is to effective decision making.”

“I do think the Office of Solicitor General is a very special kind of office where candor and internal, really truly thorough deliberation is the norm and that it would very much inhibit that kind of appropriate deliberation about legal questions if internal documents had the potential to be made public generally in that way,” Kagan said.

The hearing on Kagan will continue tomorrow afternoon with testimony from witnesses chosen by the senators to speak about issues related to the nominee. Former Solicitor General Gregory Garre, now of Latham & Watkins LLP, is scheduled to testify as is former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Jack Goldsmith, who Kagan hired as a professor at Harvard Law School during her tenure as dean. Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ed Whelan, a former OLC official in the George W. Bush administration, will also testify.