Checking Sessions and Leahy on ABC’s ‘This Week’

In a discussion of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on ABC’s This Week on May 16, 2010, the back-and-forth between Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.. the committee’s ranking Republican, largely focused on Kagan’s position on military recruitment while she was dean at Harvard Law School from 2003-2009.

We examined claims from each of the senators.

From Sessions, we looked into the claim that Kagan “violated the law of the United States at various points” with her opposition to military recruiters. She certainly tested the law, but we felt it was misleading to say she violated the law. We ruled the claim Barely True.

And from Leahy, we checked the claim that military “recruiting went on at Harvard every single day throughout the time (Kagan) was there.” While it’s true that recruiters were never entirely kicked off campus, there was a semester when Kagan limited their access to students. And we ruled his claim Half True.