Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court has resulted in heated debate among progressives and liberals. One such debate pits Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald against Harvard law professor and Nation contributor Lawrence Lessig, who both appeared on Monday’s Rachel Maddow Show.

On the show Greenwald made his case against Kagan’s nomination, and Lessig, who came on after Greenwald, called Greenwald’s views “absurd.” Greenwald didn’t get a chance for rebuttal on the show, so he did so on his Salon blog, which prompted a response from Lessig on The Huffington Post. Democracy Now! invited both Lessig and Greenwald onto the show to debate their positions at the same time.

—Morgan Ashenfelter