Elena Kagan Confirmed, 63-37, for Supreme Court; Divided Senate Approves Nomination in Partisan Vote

The Senate has voted 63-to-37 to confirm Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court justice. Click here for details. The vote was largely along party lines, with one Democrat (Ben Nelson of Nebraska) voting against her, and five Republicans voting for her.  (Swing votes like Scott Brown and George Voinovich voted against Kagan.) I give my personal perspective on the vote here.  Kagan’s confirmation margin was the third-smallest margin in the last 50 years.  In other news, a trial judge in California struck down the state’s ban on gay marriage, in a ruling that may reach the Supreme Court in the next few years.