In my first post on SG Kagan and election law, I said that “Unless something comes out from Clinton Administration papers or otherwise, the only clues we may get from SG Kagan about her election law views will come from questioning at the judiciary committee hearing.” A piece in today’s Los Angeles Times reveals that Kagan “had come to the Clinton domestic policy shop in 1997 after serving as an administration lawyer. By the time she left two years later, she had put her stamp on the office, a unit that took on tobacco and gun industries, advocated campaign finance reform, backed affirmative action and worked to preserve abortion rights.” (My emphasis.)
With Republican Senators calling for Clinton-era papers, perhaps the papers will be released. If so, we might get some real insight into her views on campaign finance. I recall going up to the Reagan library with a bunch of reporters the day an important batch of the Roberts papers were released and, as I mentioned the other day, I found the Chief’s memos on the 1982 Voting Rights Act legislative battle quite illuminating as to his general views on race and voting.