Ms. Kagan repeatedly said she would show “great deference to Congress.” Perhaps surprisingly, that was not what many senators seemed to want to hear. They appeared to want the Supreme Court to save them from themselves…

Like judges, members of Congress also swear to uphold the Constitution, Ms. Kagan said, and they should not look to the courts to save them from their folly.

“They ought to be the policymakers for the nation,” Ms. Kagan said of legislators and other elected officials. “The courts have an important role to play, but it’s a limited role. It’s essentially sort of policing the boundaries and making sure that Congress doesn’t overstep its role, doesn’t violate individual rights or interfere with other parts of the governmental system.”