Did Sen. Jeff Sessions just call Elena Kagan a liar?
UPDATE, 9:30p: The strategy of the White House from the beginning has been to portend Elena Kagan’s confirmation to the US Supreme Court as a done deal, and perhaps it was – until her slimy Senate Judiciary Committee testimony about the part she played re: the partial birth abortion ban.
Yesterday in DC the chatter was that Kagan’s confirmation to the US Supreme Court can still be stopped. She may have committed perjury.
This afternoon Senator Jeff Sessions, who had to cancel a press conference earlier in the day about all this, issued a statement about AUL’s report wherein he came as close as genteel Senate speak allows to calling Kagan a liar…
President Clinton seems to have been disposed to sign the ban, and Ms. Kagan seems to have persuaded him to reverse that position. In her testimony, Ms. Kagan clearly presented herself as a neutral staffer in the process, though this record suggests she was an active player in working to keep partial-birth abortion legal.
Quin Hilyer at the American Spectator blog wrote AUL’s report “is important; if senators had any guts, they would treat it as disqualifying.”
Bill Saunders of AUL wrote at Human Events on July 12:
There seems to be a clear difference between what Kagan told the Senate and what may have actually taken place. William Saletan, hardly a conservative-leaning columnist, called Kagan’s explanation “bogus” in a July 3 Slate.com piece….
Act Two is set to begin. As the Senate returns for business this week after the recess, the brewing storm over Kagan’s partial-birth abortion scandal is certain to intensify. But this storm, some may be surprised to find, will not necessarily be a partisan one.
Kagan’s apparent alteration of science raises serious ethical questions for both Republicans and Democrats. With so many outstanding questions about a political activist and advocate poised to sit on the highest court in the land, how could the Senate possibly vote on Kagan’s nomination without further inquiry?
UDPATE, 8:30p: I was disappointed to read the press conference scheduled this afternoon was postponed “due to a floor vote that was scheduled in the United States Senate,” presumably on the finance reform bill.
AUL Action has gone ahead and issued the report it planned to release at the conference. Here was the AUL’s bottom line, from its report:
AUL Action calls for a Senate investigation into (1) the facts surrounding Elena Kagan’s amendment to the Policy Statement of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) on partial-birth abortion (D&X procedure), (2) the discrepancies in Kagan’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Jun 30, 2010, and (3) the distorting impact of Kagan’s amendment on federal judicial and Supreme Court consideration of state and federal prohibitions on partial-birth abortion between 1997 and 2007.
Kagan’s actions have raised unresolved questions.
Because of the lack of other reliable scientific data, the ACOG Policy Statement, as Kagan amended it, was relied upon by federal courts to invalidate the laws of 30 states and an act of Congress. This serious compromised the integrity of the U.S. federal judicial process for more than a decade.
Kagan’s willingness to amend and politicize an impartial medical report by a major medical organization in order to affect legal and judicial events at the highest level of the American judicial system, relating to a major piece of Congressional legislation, raises serious questions.
12:08p: Potentially big news coming from Americans United for Life this morning.
I was in DC yesterday and was told US Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan likely committed perjury when testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on her role with the ACOG partial-birth abortion scandal.
If this charge if going to be levied at the press conference, and if it is true, Kagan has disqualified herself from serving as Supreme Court Justice.
Washington, DC – Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, will host a press conference today with several leading Senators at 2:30pm to discuss a new report released today by Americans United for Life Action which contains new information regarding Elena Kagan’s role, during her time in the Clinton Administration, in pressuring the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to change their policy statement on partial-birth abortion.
Senator Sessions will be joined by Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of AUL Action, and leaders of other major pro-life organizations.
When: 2:30 p.m EDT
Where: TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY
Who: Senator Jeff Sessions, Senator Mike Johanns, Senator Jim DeMint, Dr. Charmaine Yoest, and others to be announced.
Again, this could be very big.

The press conference has been postponed.
http://takeaction.aul.org/2010/07/press-conference-postponed-download-of-report-available/
Also, don’t forget that the Senate Republicans are looking into whether Kagan whitewashed the Larry Tribe ghostwriting scandal, despite her conflict of interest (she participated in the unethical practice as a student, serving as a Tribe ghostwriter, and thus had every incentive to sweep it under the rug, which she did):
http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2010/07/senate-republicans-trying-to-make-issue-out-of-kagans-handling-of-the-harvard-law-school-plagiarism-.html
http://authorskeptics.blogspot.com
Too bad, so sad, nothing to disclose. Anyone with the ability to think would reject the information based on the source. All you folks major in lying.
Postponed because another vote was taking place.
I had an employee that was a pharmacist. He left to become a drug rep. He wrote a narcotics script for himself and lost his liscense. If Kegan thinks she can change writings of others, she should be disbarred.
I remind myself of the bigger picture. People that are ok with the death of the unborn, what is a little surgery on a few sentences in a letter?
The way to end abortion – just ignore Roe and prosecute abortion for what it is – murder. We need to elect men of faith and boldness who will stand on the Bible and say no to the murder of innocent children. http://www.ignoreroe.com
Kegan will make it to the SCOTUS on the backs of the spineless politicians who will refuse to acknowledge her “little” perjury…
..Agree with XPPC, what’s a little lie compared to the lives of the innocent unborn who will die by their “pen”?
The word out of DC. Hmmmmmmm.
can someone explain to me what,exactly, she is being accused of saying that was untrue?
The partial birth abortion procedure is called D&X….that really says it all doesn’t it? Kagan is just another pro-death instrument of satan and I wish we had politicians with the guts to stand up for the innocent unborn without wavering no matter what. Every pro-abort idiot including Kagan were innocent children in the womb once…someone cared enough to fight for them, to try to make sure they were given life in this country, they should think about that as they sign on to kill the innocent and bash the pro-lifers who fight for all the unborn.
The partial birth abortion procedure is called D&X….that really says it all doesn’t it? Kagan is just another pro-death instrument of satan and I wish we had politicians with the guts to stand up for the innocent unborn without wavering no matter what. Every pro-abort idiot including Kagan were innocent children in the womb once…someone cared enough to fight for them, to try to make sure they were given life in this country, they should think about that as they sign on to kill the innocent and bash the pro-lifers who fight for all the unborn.
Hal, go back through Jill’s blog and you’ll find a copy of the document she wrote on in her own handwriting. She was not a member of any medical group, yet she handwrote a change in their wording. Orignally the docs said that they could find no reason to justify partial birth abortion, but Kagan wrote by hand on the document that it would be a disaster to release the document as it was. The new document was quoted in about 32 judicial events over a multi-year period. Jill’s got it all on this blog, just scroll down to previous entries.
Besides her plagiarism, falsification of records, and perjury during the Senators’ questioning, she also could NOT bring herself to say she would endorse the Declaration of Independence. And that was just a couple days before the 4th of July! She isn’t qualified to preside over court on a fictional television show, much less be on the real Supreme Court for life.
Thanks Ninek, if I get time this weekend I’ll dig around the archieves. I understood her edits were sent back to the medical organization and adopted by them. I don’t think the administration could have submitted changes without the consent of the organization, they would have presumably objected to that.
Hi Hal. If you’re pressed for time, check out the last 4 pages of the AUL report Jill linked to above. There’s an article called “When Kagan Played Doctor” that summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the argument against Kagan. The whole report is worth a read if you have time.
You are correct that ACOG accepted Kagan’s suggested revisions. This is another reason I believe Kagan should recuse herself from any PPACA cases. Her actions show she has already taken a position that an administration may influence statements by medical organizations in order to achieve a political agenda. This has pretty big implications with PPACA.
We all can only hope……
We do not need another nail in our collective coffin.
Well, isn’t she one?