GOP Requests One Week Delay on Kagan Vote

The scheduled July 13th vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan to be the next Supreme Court justice will be delayed by one week, a senior GOP leadership aide confirms to Fox.

The committee has a strong tradition of allowing any member to request a one week delay.   Both parties have used this in the past, though Democrats did not use it for either Supreme Court nominees appointed by President George W. Bush.

The GOP aide tells Fox that committee members just received their written responses from Kagan on Friday (an aide to Chairman Leahy said it was around 1:20pm) and need a chance to review those answers.  Six members submitted questions, all Republicans, and the committee has posted the answers here.

Committee member Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., must have known about the delay when he told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace this weekend, "I'll let you know a week from Tuesday when we have the markup or executive session in the Judiciary Committee."

Jim Manley, senior spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the leader plans to schedule debate and a final vote on the nominee the first week of August, putting her well within the time frame to prepare for the new Supreme Court session in October.