A day after the state Supreme Court declared her unqualified to run for attorney general of Connecticut, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said she knows of someone else who would be ineligible to hold the office: U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama's new nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In an interview Wednesday with Fox 61 news reporter Laurie Perez, Bysiewicz, a Democrat, said that, based on the state Supreme Court's interpretation of the law, Kagan would not be "qualified to be attorney general in the state of Connecticut.''
Kagan is the former Harvard Law School dean and friend of Obama who has been nominated by the Democratic president to fill the seat of John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan has been criticized by some Republicans for having a thin resume.
The state's high court Tuesday declared Bysiewicz unqualified under a statute requiring that the attorney general have 10 years' experience in the "active practice" of law in Connecticut. Although Bysiewicz has been registered as an attorney for more than 23 years, she held two lawyer jobs for a total of only six years before becoming secretary of the state 11 years ago.