On Monday, President Obama announced his nomination to replace Justice John Paul Stevens when he retires at the end of this term. He choose Elena Kagan, a 50 year old who is currently the Solicitor General. This means that she is the main lawyer for the Supreme Court and has argued numerous cases in the court. He met Kagan at the University of Chicago many years ago. Kagan has a strong resume, including Dean at Harvard Law School where she is best known for her resistance against military recruiters on campus because of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals. The Supreme Court eventually unanimously on the issue saying that colleges preventing military recruitment could be stripped of federal funds. She was also a White House domestic policy aide to President Clinton. I suspect she is pro-choice but there is a lack of information on her abortion stance. During Clinton's administration she suggested that the President support a ban on late-term abortions as a way to keep the democratic bill from gaining strength in the Senate. Again, based on Obama's stance I would be shocked is she is not pro-choice. I think this decision was more strategic for President Clinton's administration.
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report had a field day last night with this nomination. A much stronger response was expected from right wing conservatives. They seem to be holding back. Much of the news about her was gossip and not particularly relevant to her nomination. She worked for Justice Thurgood Marshall who called her "shorty", to which Jon Stewart cautiously warned that "somebody call 911, Shorty fire burning on the dance floor". (She is 5 foot 3). She is single, has no children, enjoys smoking cigars and is an accomplished poker player. Colbert sarcastically hinted at the idea that these interests and stats could easily characterize her as a lesbian. That would certainly shake things up in the court if she came out as a lesbian after being officially elected to the court. Either way, I am not going to speculate. She has a very strong stance on gay rights so it will be interested to see how that impacts Supreme Court decisions.
The major knock against her is that she has never been a judge. Experience is important and I think she has enough knowledge to overcome the lack of judicial experience. She will be the youngest member of the court and I am sure that even if she did have experience, the conservatives would use her age to criticize the nomination. It is likely that she will officially be elected before Labor Day and it does not seem that Republicans will try to block this nomination.
I could not embed the Colbert Report clip, it is also very good so here is a link.
Below is the Daily Show clip.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Release the Kagan | ||||
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