By John Whitesides and Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on Tuesday defended her decision to limit military recruiting at Harvard and rejected Republican charges she would be a liberal judicial activist.
Under questioning from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kagan calmly brushed off complaints that she was more interested in politics than legal precedent and promised her rulings would be based solely on the law.
"My politics would be, must be, have to be completely separate from my judging," Kagan said on the second day of her confirmation hearing. "The question is always what the law says."
Senator Jeff Sessions, the panel's senior Republican, pressed Kagan on whether she would follow Obama's political agenda and whether she was a "liberal progressive."
"I honestly don't know what that means," Kagan said. "This isn't a job, I think, where somebody should come in with a particular substantive agenda and try to shape what they do to meet that agenda."
Kagan, 50, has sparked little controversy compared to other Supreme Court nominees and appears headed to relatively easy confirmation to a lifetime position on the top U.S. court.
The nearly nine-hour hearing covered a range of topics, from hot-button issues like guns and abortion to arcane questions of foreign law, law school curriculums and the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
Kagan refused to discuss her specific views on past or potential future court cases, and repeatedly disarmed Republicans with a quick sense of humour.
Asked by Republican Lindsey Graham where she was on Christmas Day, when a failed plane bombing threatened U.S. lives, Kagan responded: "Like all Jews, I was probably in a Chinese restaurant."
Kagan, who as U.S. solicitor general currently represents the government in cases before the nine-member court, refused to take the bait when Republican Jon Kyl asked if she agreed with complaints that the court had favoured corporate interests in recent rulings.
"I would not want to characterize the current court in any way -- I hope one day to join it," Kagan said.
"And they said you weren't political," Kyl responded to laughter from Kagan and the crowd.
MILITARY RECRUITING
Kagan, a former dean of Harvard Law School, defended her decisions limiting access to military recruiters under university anti-discrimination rules because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays, which prevents gays from serving openly in the military.
While dean of the school, Kagan reinstated Harvard's policy preventing military recruiters from using its career office, but allowed them access through student groups.
"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.
Sessions said Kagan's decision made the military second-class citizens on campus. "The actions you took created a climate that was not healthy towards the military," he said.
Talking to reporters afterward, he said he was "less comfortable" with Kagan after the exchange.
Both sides jockeyed for political advantage ahead of November's congressional elections, with Republicans attacking Kagan as an agent for Obama's agenda and Democrats criticizing what they said was the court's drift to the right under Chief Justice John Roberts.
While describing her politics as "generally progressive," Kagan praised conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and her conservative friend Miguel Estrada, whose appeals court nomination by former President George W. Bush was blocked by Senate Democrats in a clash that still rankles Republicans.
Pressed about her comment that retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak, a liberal activist condemned by many Republicans, was a legal "hero," Kagan said she did not look to him as a role model.
"I do admire him," she said. "I admire Justice Barak for what he's done for the state of Israel in ensuring an independent judiciary."
If she wins Senate confirmation to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, she would be the first new member of the high court in four decades who has never been a judge. She also would be the current court's youngest member and its third woman.
Kagan was asked several times about a book review she wrote that criticized Supreme Court confirmation hearings because nominees rarely divulge their real views on key cases. She has adjusted her view now that she is on the other side, she said.
"I skewed it too much," she said of her criticism. "It wouldn't be appropriate for me to talk about what I think about past cases -- you know, to grade cases -- because those cases themselves might again come before the court."
Under questioning by the committee's Democratic chairman Patrick Leahy, she said the court's decision on Monday extending gun rights to every U.S. city and state was "settled law."
On abortion, she said the court had repeatedly held that a woman's life and health "must be protected."
Kagan also said she supported televising court hearings, and promised to recuse herself from any case in which 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.
(Editing by Vicki Allen and Mohammad Zargham)