Stump the Nominee

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) grills a nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma about issues she might confront on the bench. This time it is Sara Hill, former attorney general of the Cherokee Nation. Unlike several past incidents (one of which led to the withdrawal of the nomination), Ms. Hill does pretty well. She drew a blank on collateral estoppel, which she attributed to nerves, but she mostly nailed Kennedy's other questions, with the exception of an incoherent one about the Eighth Amendment and -- it seems to me, although he didn't say it -- the death penalty.

It is surprising that nominees have not prepared themselves better for Kennedy's predictable questioning. Of course, it is impossible to know which arcana he will focus on that day, but the basics of the Constitution -- What does Article II do? -- shouldn't be a stumper.