Former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod revealed that Justice Antonin Scalia personally requested his ideological opposite Elena Kagan be nominated to the Supreme Court.
Writing for CNN two days after Scalia’s death, Axelrod relayed a story about a time he was seated with Scalia at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Justice David Souter had just announced his retirement, and after some chatting, Scalia made a request of one of the president’s top aides.
“I have no illusions that your man will nominate someone who shares my orientation,” Scalia said, according to Axelrod. “But I hope he sends us someone smart.”
Axelrod wrote that he was “a little taken aback” to have Scalia discussing the subject with him, but after he responded with, “I’m sure he will, Justice Scalia,” the justice leaned in.
“Let me put a finer point on it,” Scalia said, “in a lower, purposeful tone of voice.” “I hope he sends us Elena Kagan.”
Kagan, the former dean of Harvard Law School and who had worked in the Clinton administration, was then Obama’s solicitor general.
Axelrod said he later learned Scalia and Kagan were friends, each Harvard Law graduates, and while of different backgrounds, “if Scalia could not have a philosophical ally in the next court appointee, he had hoped, at least, for one with the heft to give him a good, honest fight.”
Obama ultimately nominated Sonia Sotomayor to fill Souter’s vacant seat, but Scalia got his wish a year later, when the president tapped Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
Though Scalia was a major conservative force on the bench, and Kagan a vote on the court’s liberal side, their friendship continued — even becoming hunting buddies after Kagan joined the bench.
Kagan told one senator during her confirmation hearings that, as a “Jewish girl who grew up in New York City,” she had never been hunting, but would ask Scalia to teach her if they became colleagues.
“When I got on the court I went to Justice Scalia,” Kagan said last year. “I told him the whole story and I said this is the only promise I made in 82 office visits. He thought it was hysterical.”
