Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh gets his day to shine Tuesday, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducts a confirmation hearing into his nomination to serve as chief legal adviser to the State Department.

In anticipation of the hearing, the American Society of International Law has revived a useful memo on the position. The conservative Heritage Foundation posts some provocative questions for her nominee here. Suits & Sentences plans to live blog the hearing, scheduled to start at 2:15 p.m. EST.

4: 00 p.m.

    It's a wrap. Dean Koh seems to be heading toward confirmation.

3:55 p.m.

    Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi asks whether Koh believes the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq was illegal under international law. The answer appears to be yes; yes it was. Which would seem to open up a whole line of follow-up, consequential questions, none of which Sen. Wicker really pursues.

    "The U.N. resolutions authorized us to contain Saddam Hussein, and not go in to remove him," Koh says in response to a later question.

3:45 p.m.

    Proving that all politics, even foreign politics, can be excruciatingly local, Republican Sen. John Barrasso of gun-loving Wyoming presses Koh on whether he believes the Second Amendment supports an individual right to bear arms.

    Relationship to the actual job of State Department legal adviser: Unknown.

    Koh essentially answers in the only way possible, noting that the Supreme Court's decision in the Heller case is "the law of the land."

3:26 p.m.

    Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia further questions Koh on assertions made in articles that Koh would yield too much to international sentiment or international law. Then, he tries taking Koh into an even trickier area, asking whether legal advisers should be held accountable for their advice by future administrations.

    See, e.g., the Bush administration 'torture memos' now under investigation.

    "If by taking this job I am buying myself lawsuits and prosecutions, that wasn't part of the original plan," Koh said, before adding that "a process is unfolding" now to examine the Bush administration's legal eagles. In other words, he's not being drawn into that ambush.

    But Isakson's questions were all prefaced with words, and expressed in a tone, that made clear this opposition will not be muscularly pursued. The Republicans seem to be going through the motions with this; they know Koh is rolling toward confirmation and will not be busting any lances on this.

3:20 p.m.

    Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin reports he first got to know Koh three decades ago, when they were both at Oxford. Feingold was a Rhodes Scholar and Koh was a Marshall Scholar. So they know the secret handshake, for sure.

3:13 p.m.

    The first hint of skepticism arises with Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who first praises Koh's academic and personal background but then cautions he was left a tad disappointed following an earlier private meeting. Corker is a smart conservative, a potentially dangerous opponent if he chooses to be, and he  presses Koh on a past statement that the United States had acted in a "lawless" fashion. Torture, Koh explains.

    "I am an academic," Koh tells the senator. "The job of an academic is to put ideas into the marketplace."

    "Can you separate those personal views you have from giving absolute neutral advice?" Corker asks.

    Koh was ready for it, quoting verbatim from the former legal adviser to Mr. Republican Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.    

3:00 p.m.

    Sen. Richard Lugar raises but then brushes past the fevered criticisms that TV It-Boy Glenn Beck and his ilk have raised about Koh's supposed excessive reverence for international law. One thing is clear: the ever-cautious Sen. Lugar does not have any interest in associating himself with the Right's louder Beckian factions.

2:48 p.m.

    Dean Koh, after stating that "returning to government service would allow me to repay a debt," strikes right at the differences between the Obama and Bush administrations. He underscores the point that "making and keeping international promises...makes us stronger," and stresses his interest in "respecting constitutional checks and balances."

    Take that, John "Blow Up the UN" Bolton and David "Screw Congress" Addington.

    Responding to a set-up question from Sen. John Kerry, Kohn also confronts the conservative opposition to him, stating that "it's not new and it's not radical" to recognize that "we live in an interdependent world."

2:41 p.m. 

    Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the former Democrat and current Independent senator from Connecticut -- and a Yale Law School alum himself -- introduces Koh as a "brilliant legal scholar, " a man of "integrity, honor and graciousness" and as someone who is "actually qualified for this position. So there's one yes vote...and then Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chimes in with further heartfelt support.

    But more useful might be the actions of the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. Sen. Lugar met with Koh last week and submitted a series of 40 questions, including on some of the pressing issues Koh will face; the questions, and answers, are available here.