Before you roll your eyes and assume that even moderate Democrats—such as Colorado’s U.S. senators, Mark Udall and Michael Bennet—approve of President Barack Obama’s latest nominee for U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, consider what the court’s most outspoken conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, thinks. Unlike some right-leaning critics, Scalia likes Kagan, a former Harvard Law School dean and solicitor general, for the Court. Why? She’s not a judge. “Currently, there is nobody on the Court who has not served as a judge–indeed, as a federal judge–all nine of us,” he tells ABC News. “I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge–and not a judge at all.”

Udall, who met with Kagan Wednesday, says he’s “impressed” with her but is not ready to say whether he’d vote to confirm her, according to the Denver Business Journal. “In our conversation, I told Solicitor General Kagan that I’m particularly interested in her position on issues important to the West, including water rights and issues involving natural resources and federal property,” Udall says. “I’m satisfied that she takes all of these issues seriously and that she understands their complexity and unique importance to Colorado.”

Bennet, who met with Kagan earlier this week, is also “impressed” with Kagan, who strikes him as “someone who would be a pragmatic, non-ideological jurist with an appreciation for legal precedent and the Constitution, as well as a firm grasp of how the law affects the lives of the American people.”