Documents released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and other documents obtained by CBS News shed some light on the way Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan may approach her job on the Court.
The documents obtained by CBS News detail Kagan's time as clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The documents contain memos and opinions from Kagan on such issues as abortion, prisoners' rights and gay marriage, among others.
On the issue of abortion, one memo reportedly showed Kagan citing a case involving a prisoner who wanted the state to pay for her to undergo the procedure.
According to the documents, Kagan was concerned that the Supreme Court would rule against the woman and use the case to undo some of the rights granted to women concerning abortion.
"This case is likely to become the vehicle that this court uses to create some very bad law on abortion and/or prisoners' rights," Kagan wrote.
Another memo, this one involving gay marriage, showed Kagan citing a case where a prisoner in New York serving a life sentenced argued that the state must recognize his marriage-by-proxy in Kansas, despite the fact that gay marriage was illegal in New York.
The prisoner argued that New York, under the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit Clause, was required by law to recognize his marriage as legal. Kagan wrote in her memo that the prisoner was "at least arguably correct."
Upon learning of the documents, Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said they reveal "not only Ms. Kagan's strong liberal views, but a willingness to bring those views into the courthouse—shaping and even replacing legal judgment."
He said the memos could "provide some of the best insight into how she would rule as a Supreme Court Justice."
Further, Sessions said the memos show that Kagan "has a demonstrated history of bringing her liberal politics into the courthouse."
Meanwhile, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library released documents that showed some of Kagan's activities during her time in the Clinton administration.
However, despite the release of these documents, the Library said that two boxes of materials from her time on the Domestic Policy Council were being held back. According to the library, the documents were being held back because they represent her work in the Counsel's office.
After the release of the Clinton Library documents, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Ver., said, "With this initial delivery of documents, the Judiciary Committee has received more information from the administration than was made available at this point in the confirmation process for either the Roberts or Alito nominations."
He added that the materials "show that the Obama administration and the Archives are working hard to ensure that Senators have the information relevant to Solicitor General Kagan's nomination before her confirmation hearing begins on June 28."
However, while the Clinton Library released more than 46,000 pages of documents, Sessions complained that not all of the documents were being released.
Sessions said, "The batch of documents received today represent less than a third of the 160,000 pages of material we have been told exist from Elena Kagan's time as a senior policy aide to President Clinton."
"We are now a mere 24 days away from the hearing and the committee still has yet to receive over 100,000 pages of documents, called for in a bipartisan request, from Ms. Kagan's lengthy time in the White House," he added.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.