Kagan…
Well? What are your thoughts?
There are a lot of grounds for both praise and criticism here…
I’m not buying the lack of judicial experience argument. For one thing, it’s not even a constitutional requirement that someone be a lawyer to become a SCOTUS Justice, much less have been a Judge. Two, the only reason she wasn’t a Judge was that Republicans held up her confirmation hearings until Clinton left office after he nominated her to be on D.C. Circuit. For another, she was a clerk for Thurgood Marshall and Supreme Court clerks aren’t “clerks” in the traditional sense. They analyze the cases, write the arguments in favor and against, and often pen the actual opinions of the cases. Finally, the Solicitor General is routinely referred to as the 10th Justice because of their close relationship with the Court. That office argues more cases before the Supreme Court than any other office.
There are, however, other arguments one could use to attack or support her …
Let’s hear it! What do you think?
I’m just glad he didn’t nominate Cass Sunstein!
No question that Prof. Sunstein’s on judicial minimalism would have made for an interesting confirmation fight. On the other hand, he’s pro 2nd Amendment and pro death penalty…
I don’t believe he’s pro 2nd Amendment at all. I know what he said, but Bill Clinton said, “I did not have sex with that woman”, and Richard Nixon said, “I am not a crook”.
I don’t see how anyone can say, “There is no liberty without dependency” and have me actually believe that the 2nd Amendment gives me the right to own a gun for personal protection. To me the 2nd Amendment is the ultimate in self-reliance vs. government dependence.
I would however like to know what the deal is with Miranda warnings though? I think we need some clarity on this issue. It appears to me that the current Administration via. DOJ dropped the notion of war on terror and looked to the courts for resolution, but now they’re talking about holding terrorist suspects indefinitely?
This seems like a serious issue and maybe we need a little more facts and a little less punditry.
In the end, she’ll get confirmed…
Agreed on Miranda and on whether she’ll get confirmed.
Hmmmmm….apparently we are getting Sunstein without the fight?
“Cass Sunstein is the preeminent legal scholar of our time, the most wide-ranging, the most prolific, the most cited, and the most influential,” Elena Kagan, dean of the Harvard Law School.
Very few non-legal wonk people know Kagan. She is an academic, so everythng controversial she has said can be brushed away as theory and study. Yet she seems to be a huge fan of Sunstein. Hmmmm…brilliant move Mr. President!
“There is no Liberty without dependency” – Sunstein. Yo, Cass…EAT IT!
I want her to have judicial to sit as a judge on the Supreme Court. The problem with her not having been a judge is there is no history on how she rules on cases and no opinions to review to understand her positions. As an attorney, she argues cases to win the case, no matter what she thinks or what the law allows. Her job is to represent her client, manipulate the law, manipulate the jury, exploit any loopholes and win the case. Just because she has argues cases DO NOT make her Supreme Court Justice worthy.
Again, we need to see history – and she has none.