By John Whitesides and Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan rejected Republican charges on Tuesday that she would be a liberal judicial activist and promised rulings based on the law, not her political views.
Under questioning from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kagan also defended her decision to limit military recruiting at Harvard while she was dean of the law school.
Kagan, 50, is solicitor general and a former aide in the Clinton administration. Republicans have questioned her lack of experience as a judge and portrayed her as an activist more interested in politics than law.
"My politics would be, must be, have to be, completely separate from my judgement," Kagan on the second day of her confirmation hearing.
"It is absolutely true that I have served in two Democratic administrations," she said. "You can tell something from me and my political views from that."
Senator Jeff Sessions, the panel's senior Republican, said he viewed Kagan as a "liberal progressive" and pressed her on whether she would follow Obama's political agenda.
"I honestly don't know what that means," Kagan said.
Both parties have jockeyed for political advantage in the hearing ahead of November's congressional elections. While Republicans questioned if Kagan would be a prisoner of Obama's political agenda, Democrats criticized what they said was the high court's tilt to conservative activism under Chief Justice John Roberts.
Kagan has sparked little controversy compared to other Supreme Court nominees and is likely to be confirmed relatively easily. Her nomination has been overshadowed by a heavy crush of political news, including the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and last week's removal of Afghanistan war commander U.S. General Stanley McChrystal.
Kagan defended her decisions at Harvard limiting access to military recruiters under the university's anti-discrimination rules because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, which she called unjust.
MILITARY ACCESS
"I'm confident the military had access to our students, and our students had access to the military throughout my entire deanship," she said, adding she respected and "revered" the military. "We ensured students would know the military was coming to our campus."
A year before Kagan became dean, Harvard had made an exception to its 1979 non-discrimination policy and allowed the military recruiters to use its Office of Career Services.
Kagan reinstated Harvard's policy preventing military recruiters from using its career office, but allowed them access through student groups.
Sessions said Kagan's decision had made the military second-class citizens. "The actions you took created a climate that was not healthy towards the military," he said.
If Kagan wins Senate confirmation, she will be the first new member of the high court in four decades who has never been a judge.
Democrats have noted about one-third of the Supreme Court's justices through history were not judges before joining the high court, and said Kagan's lack of judicial experience would bring needed diversity to a court full of former judges.
Each of the Judiciary Committee's 19 senators will have 30 minutes during the first round of questioning, which is expected to last all day on Tuesday and into Wednesday.
Republicans are also expected to press Kagan on her views on hot-button social issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and gun rights.
Under questioning from Democratic chairman Patrick Leahy, Kagan said she would recuse herself from any case where she was the counsel of record as solicitor general. She said there were about 10 cases in that category on next year's court docket.
She also said she would consider recusing herself on any case where she played a substantial role such as formally approving a motion or strategy.
(Editing by Vicki Allen)
