Clarence Thomas likes to spend his breaks road-tripping in his RV. Newly sworn-in Elena Kagan lived much of the past few months in front of C-SPAN’s cameras. Their colleagues also kept busy.

Chief Justice John Roberts and his wife traveled the east coast of Australia, making stops in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Roberts was there to give lectures, but his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, has personal ties to the country—she used to practice law in Melbourne.

For the 21st summer in a row, Anthony Kennedy went to Austria to teach students from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law studying abroad.

In a 1995 article for the University of Chicago Law Review, then-professor Elena Kagan called the Senate confirmation process for Supreme Court nominees a “vapid and hollow charade.” And after keeping at least one eye glued to C-SPAN for the better part of this week, I couldn’t agree more.

Kagan’s own hearings, which wrapped up Wednesday, were little more than an obligatory masquerade show. We all knew before they began that Kagan is a shoo-in for the high court. Despite the best efforts of her opponents to stir up controversy, no bombshells ever came out of the thousands upon thousands of memos and e-mails she wrote in her early career. And though some groups on the right would have us believe that her college thesis indicated she was a Commie sympathizer, in reality it . . . well . . . didn’t. 

Every step of the way, Kagan truly has proved to be the Teflon nominee. 

Elena Kagan’s hearings start Monday. That means her opponents are busier than ever building the case against her confirmation.

Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he wouldn’t rule out a filibuster of Kagan’s nomination.

So what’s the problem? For the past several weeks, the main complaint has been Kagan’s lack of previous judicial experience. But the GOP is shifting its strategy. Now Kagan detractors say she’s not worthy of the high court because she’s “a political operative." 

Is it June 28 yet? Because the final days leading up to the start date of Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings are really dragging. Here are some interesting tidbits to mull over the weekend. But seriously, bring on those hearings!

The gargantuan document dump of memos and other papers from Kagan’s early career has so far turned up little of consequence. Maybe the release of 80,000 pages of e-mails later today will reveal something a bit juicier?

That’s not to say we haven’t learned anything from the paper trail. We now know, for instance, that as associate counsel in the White House, Kagan played a key role in defending President Clinton’s claim of attorney-client privilege when the Senate committee investigating Whitewater demanded notes from a meeting between his lawyers.

More and more of Elena Kagan’s paper trail is coming to light, and there’s still relatively little controversy to report. She remains on track to take her seat on the high court, but that’s not stopping critics from making a lot of noise.

Anti-abortion and other conservative groups are using the lead up to Kagan’s confirmation hearings to trumpet their agendas and rally the opposition. Liberal groups are getting a piece of the action, too.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has now had a full week to sift through the first wave of documents from Kagan’s early career released by the National Archives. And no surprise here—two senior Republican senators find some of her memos “troubling,” “disturbing,” and too political.

Another document dump is scheduled for today, but if the entirety of Kagan’s paper trail isn’t released soon, Senator Jeff Sessions, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, says he’ll ask to delay her hearings.

But the American public is on Kagan’s side, with nearly six in ten saying the Senate should confirm her.

We’re about three weeks away from Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings, and though some right-wing groups and Republican senators continue to throw barbs, she remains largely unscathed. There’s not a single “wise Latina” moment to report, and some observers are even deeming Kagan a snoozefest.

The New York Times, noting that a real fight over Kagan’s nomination has yet to materialize, dubs her “a kind of Teflon nominee.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t still looking for potential bombshells. Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is still digging into Kagan’s ban on military recruiters while she was dean of Harvard Law School. The Republican lawmaker wants the Department of Defense to turn over by June 11 all records relating to recruiting efforts at Harvard Law during Kagan’s tenure.  

Things are heating up on the Hill as the Senate prepares for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings. Here’s hoping everyone can take a breather over the Memorial Day recess.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee continue to press for the release of Kagan’s Clinton-era documents before the start of her hearings, scheduled for June 28. They say the fact that Kagan has no judicial experience makes her Clinton record that much more significant. So enjoy the holiday break, Senate Judiciary staffers, because you could soon be sifting through 168,000 pages of memos and e-mails.