Elena Kagan Hearings: Military Vets Paint Different Pictures of Nominee

Military veterans testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday evening gave members of the panel two diametrically opposed portraits of Elena Kagan, the former dean of the Harvard Law School and nominee for next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Depending on the witness, Kagan was either a radical academic with a deep-seated hostility toward the military or a leader and consensus builder who went out of her way as the dean at Harvard to make veterans feel not only important, but "revered."

The contrasting pictures came from the four veterans invited to testify at Kagan's confirmation hearings, where her role in determining the access of military recruiters to students under her purview at Harvard has become the most contentious point of argument so far between Democrats and Republicans.

The hearing concluded Thursday after a marathon session involving 24 witnesses. The Judiciary Committee will vote on the nomination after July 4, and the full Senate will vote before August.

As Carl Cannon wrote earlier this week, controversies over the military's rightful place on college campuses date back to the Vietnam war, but the piece of the saga that relates to Kagan was the Solomon Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1996, it required schools that receive federal funding to grant military recruiters "most favorable access" to their students or risk losing federal funds.

But Harvard's own policies bar organizations that discriminate against any group, including gays, from recruiting on campus, and the American military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy ran afoul of Harvard's anti-discrimination policies. So Kagan inherited and upheld a somewhat tortured compromise policy that allowed the military to recruit on the Harvard Law campus through veterans' alumni groups, but not through the school's professional Office of Career Services.

Kagan was later forced to allow the military full access to students through the career office, but her opposition to Don't Ask Don't Tell was always clear. In an e-mail to her colleagues in 2003, she wrote, "I abhor the military's discriminatory recruitment policy," calling it, "a profound wrong -- a moral injustice of the first order."

Before Thursday, senators never agreed on exactly what Kagan's true attitude toward the armed forces really is, and based on the conflicting testimony at the hearing, they won't agree any time soon.

The first three men to testify came at the invitation of the Republicans on the committee and were outspoken against her confirmation. All three served in the military, but none attended Harvard Law and none knows Ms. Kagan personally.

Army Capt. Flagg Youngblood, USA (Ret.), a Yale graduate, voiced the strongest objections to Kagan's appointment, calling her oversight of the separate-but-equal access for recruiters at Harvard Law "a total disregard for the rule of law" and an "unlawful brand of segregation."

"Imagine Dean Kagan on the lunch counter," Youngblood told the senators, comparing military recruiters to African- Americans during the Civil Rights movement. "What she said to the military in effect was, 'You're welcome here, but would you be so kind as to use the back door by the garbage? You don't mind eating in the kitchen, do you?'"

Army Capt. Pete Hegseth, an Iraq War veteran who attends Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said Kagan treated the military "like second-class citizens" when she continued limiting recruiters' access to the career services office.

"Her actions undercut the military's ability to fight and win wars overseas," Hegseth said. He also lamented the fact that Kagan, whom he considers anti-military, is slated to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, the last remaining veteran on the high court.

Hegseth also said Kagan's supporters are wrong to point to Harvard Law's increased numbers in the military as a good reflection on Kagan's time as dean. "It increased in spite of Ms. Kagan, not because of her," he said.

Finally, Thomas Moe, an Air Force veteran and POW in Vietnam, said Kagan's disregard for the Solomon Amendment should disqualify her from consideration for the court. "As a citizen, I cannot support the nomination of a justice who can pick and choose the laws they wish to follow," he said.

In response, Democrats pointed out that several Harvard Law alumna and veterans had written letters of support for Kagan. Sen. Arlen Specter asked Youngblood if being gay affects a person's ability to serve in the military.

"I personally don't have a problem with that," Youngblood said. "To me it's not something that's an issue, as long as the military comes first."

The last of the military witnesses was Arny Captain Kurt White, president of Harvard Law Armed Forces Association and a current student at Harvard Law school who knew Kagan as dean.

White told the panel that he wanted to dispel the "untrue and unfair" allegations against Kagan, a woman, he said, "who, in my short time knowing her, went to great lengths to show her respect for and appreciation for the military and military veterans."

White described Kagan as a warm, gracious leader who specifically praised the veterans in the Harvard student body at class functions and singled veterans out for praise in newsletters, speeches and campus dinners.

He completely rejected the earlier descriptions of her as hostile to the military and said during all of his time knowing her, Kagan made him and his fellow veterans feel "welcomed, appreciated and, indeed, revered."

Click play below to watch a video report from Medill Washington on day four of the Kagan hearings: