Okay, who is Elena Kagan, and are we gonna have trouble out of her?

[Guest Jamie]

Seems Obama has made his choice for the next supreme court justice, and she's it:

Report: Obama to Name Kagan for Supreme Court

She kind'a looks like a man in drag, but I'm wondering if that's the worst of it...

J.

Edited May 11, 2010 by Jamie

[Rightwinger]

Holder says she's done a nice job.....that's the nail I needed for that coffin.

[Guest Jamie]

Yeah, I sort of figured it'd take a stake and some holy water to properly deal with this one...

Damn. :-\

J.

[Guest redbarron06]

Unlike the others she would join on the bench, Kagan has never before served as a federal judge.

So she has the same qualifcations as BHO does to be president.

[Guest Bronker]

Seems Obama...

That's as far as I had to read.

[Guest Jamie]

That's as far as I had to read.

Yeah, me too.

I mean, I knew he couldn't possibly make a good choice... now all I wanna know is how bad it actually is.

J.

[Guest oldsmobile98]

Let's hope she's not as bad as the Wise Latina.

[Guest Jamie]

Let's hope she's not as bad as the Wise Latina.

Two things in the news article stand out and bother me:

Known as sharp and politically savvy

and...

She has the chance to extend Obama's legacy for a generation.

Neither of those is a good thing, in my opinion. However, we certainly don't need anyone on SCOTUS who's more concerned with politics than they are with what's right.

Well, we don't need ANYONE ELSE who is...

J.

[mikegideon]

Seems Obama has made his choice for the next supreme court justice, and she's it:

Report: Obama to Name Kagan for Supreme Court

She kind'a looks like a man in drag, but I'm wondering if that's the worst of it...

J.

Starting to look like Obama has a thing for homely women

[Guest Jamie]

I'm still not quite convinced it is a woman...

And no, I don't wanna check for myself.

J.

[Guest Straight Shooter]

I read a little on her a few days ago, it wasnt good. She, of course, is liberal, and I will bet the farm she wont be any sort of a friend to gunowners, or anyone or anything else on the "right" side of the isle. Seems like it was a couple other very disturbing things, but I cannot remember them just now. Ill post more if I do.

Bottom line, as others said before... If that socialist ass Obama nominated her, she's as big a rat as he is.

Added info: Just read this. She's NEVER been a judge, or sat on a bench. She is a Harvard proffesor of law. An activist against dont ask/dont tell, and favors GAYS in the military. When Congress banned federal aid to schools/colleges that forbid ROTC and/or military recruiters on campus..she railed against that. So far, what Ive read of her "credentials", MINE are better.

Michele Malkin and Michael Savage have more on her background. Its F-ING PITIFUL.

Edited May 10, 2010 by Straight Shooter

[Guest 1817ak47]

was she from Wisconsin???

Q2 was she related to steve kagen in wi?? he was elected for a political position but cannot remember what anymore.

I knew of some people who had steve kaygen MD as there doctor when I lived up north

[robin48]

A nomination by Obama is enough reason to freeze her out. The repubs will cave and let him have this after some posturing. It does not bode well. She is even more leftist than Stevens who is retiring.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Kagan has clerked for Thurgood Marshall, worked for Bill Clinton and earned a stellar reputation as a student, teacher and manager of the elite academic world. Her standing has risen in Obama's eyes as his government's lawyer before the high court over the last year.

Yet Kagan would be the first justice without judicial experience in almost 40 years. All of the three other finalists she beat out for the job are federal appeals court judges, and all nine of the current justices served on the federal bench before being elevated. from Huffington Post.

No judicial experience. Sounds like she's qualified:screwy:

She wanted the gays to be out in the military, against "Don't ask, don't tell"

Even the 'Wise Latina' has experience. If the minority doesn't try to filibuster her SCOTUS will be stuck with an 'activist' for a long time.

[E4 No More]

The left is crying because she's not liberal enough.

[1gewehr]

She's exactly what you would expect from Obama; liberal, chosen for her appearance, an academic as opposed to experienced, and ideologically driven.

[Guest manofsteel]

yep one more mistake for the big o. maybe if he screws up this country bad enough no one will ever vote for a dem again

[Guest SUNTZU]

http://bench.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ODMyM2YxNWM1MTUxMWJmNjBlNjYyNWFkN2RjMTNhYjE=

Probing the Mystery of Elena Kagan’s Beliefs [Ed Whelan]

I confess that I’m a bit baffled by the hopes and concerns of some on the Right and on the Left, respectively, that Elena Kagan might secretly harbor some conservative legal views. Anything’s possible in theory, I suppose, but let’s start with some basic facts:

Kagan clerked for two very liberal jurists, D.C. Circuit judge Abner Mikva and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, and she calls Marshall her legal hero. In addition to her current work in the Obama administration, she worked on the Dukakis presidential campaign and in the Clinton White House. She’s been in the liberal milieu of legal academia for most of her career and has thrived in that milieu. So far as I’m aware, no one who knows her well “doubt,†as Charles Fried puts it, “that her heart beats on the left.†In short, except in those areas (presidential powers and national security) where she has expressed more moderate views, there is zero reason to expect that she’d be anything other than the doctrinaire liberal that she has vocally been on gay-rights issues.

For folks looking for yet more evidence, today’s Daily Princetonian carries an article on Kagan as a Princeton undergrad. Kagan was editorial chairman of the paper for two years, and the student colleague who appointed her describes her politics as having been “progressive and thoughtful but well within the mainstream of the ... sort of liberal, democratic, progressive tradition.†(Ah, yes, the mainstream of the left stream.) Here’s an excerpt about Kagan’s senior thesis on the history of the socialist movement in New York City:

“Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism’s glories than of socialism’s greatness,†she wrote in her thesis. “Conformity overrides dissent; the desire to conserve has overwhelmed the urge to alter. Such a state of affairs cries out for explanation.â€

She called the story of the socialist movement’s demise “a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism’s decline, still wish to change America ... In unity lies their only hope.â€

I think that it’s fair to say that anyone who found it puzzling—as “cr[ying] out for explanationâ€â€”why Americans “are more likely to speak of … capitalism’s glories than of socialism’s greatness†and who saw the demise of the American socialist movement as “sad†was well on the Left. (To be clear: I am certainly not contending that Kagan’s views might not have changed over the years; I am merely pointing out the utter dearth of evidence that Kagan might secretly harbor conservative views.)

The bold text freaking screams out at you...

Elena Kagan, Radical? | The Weekly Standard

Earlier this week, President Obama called Republican Senator Orrin Hatch to discuss the vacancy on the Court left by Justice Souter. According to Hatch's office, the president "assured Hatch...that he would appoint a pragmatist, not a radical, to this important position." Among the names considered at the top of President Obama's short-list is that of Elena Kagan, the recently confirmed solicitor general and former dean of the Harvard Law School. Yesterday THE WEEKLY STANDARD obtained a copy of Elena Kagan's senior thesis, written almost thirty years ago while an undergraduate at Princeton. The title of the thesis: "To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933"

Obviously, one imagines that Kagan's views have evolved significantly over the last three decades, but given Obama's stated aversion to radicalism, it's certainly worth noting the radical roots of the nation's top lawyer. In her acknowledgments, Kagan writes:

"Sean Wilentz painstakingly read each page of this thesis - occasionally two or three times. His comments and suggestions were invaluable; his encouragement was both needed and appreciated. Finally, I would like to thank my brother Marc, whose involvement in radical causes led me to explore the history of American radicalism in the hope of clarifying my own political ideas."

What were Kagan's own ideas?

"In our own times, a coherent socialist movement is nowhere to be found in the United States. Americans are more likely to speak of a golden past than of a golden future, of capitalism's glories than of socialism's greatness. Conformity overrides dissent; the desire to conserve has overwhelmed the urge to alter. Such a state of affairs cries out for explanation. Why, in a society by no means perfect, has a radical party never attained the status of a major political force? Why, in particular, did the socialist movement never become an alternative to the nation's established parties?"(pp. 127)

"Through its own internal feuding, then, the SP exhausted itself forever and further reduced labor radicalism in New York to the position of marginality and insignificance from which it has never recovered. The story is a sad but also a chastening one for those who, more than half a century after socialism's decline, still wish to change America. Radicals have often succumbed to the devastating bane of sectarianism; it is easier, after all, to fight one's fellows than it is to battle an entrenched and powerful foe. Yet if the history of Local New York shows anything, it is that American radicals cannot afford to become their own worst enemies. In unity lies their only hope." (pp. 129-130)

Her political sympathies (at the time) seem quite clear -- and radical.

[E4 No More]

Again, a lefty is replacing a lefty. No big deal. It doesn't change the court.

[Guest oldsmobile98]

[daddyo]

As someone said in the comments on another site, "Isn't she adorable?".

[saintsfanbrian]

See if America is what it is today in 30 years. My guess it will be worse or there will be more than one.

[Guest oldsmobile98]

See if America is what it is today in 30 years. My guess it will be worse or there will be more than one.

Keep your chin up. A lot of things can happen in 30 years. In 1769, the colonists were dealing with the Sugar Act. And the Currency Act. And the Quartering Act. And the Stamp Act. And the Townshend Acts.

But thirty years later they were Americans, and they partied like it was 1799...'cause it was.

[Guest don_m]

Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you're down the road a bit. Retiring ultra-liberal justice Stevens was nominated by Gerald Ford, and his former far-left cohort Souter was nominated by Bush Sr. Once they're in, they're pretty much impervious to the wishes of the current administration. Which is kind of the constitution's intent. Based on what little I know, he could have done a lot worse. The howling on the far left is a good sign. She's actually made some encouraging comments about the Heller case, and the Brady Bunch is not pleased.

[raydog1]

During her Solicitor General nomination proceedings, Ms. Kagan provided answers to Senator Chuck Grassley regarding her view of District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S.Ct. 2783 (2008):

"The Supreme Court held in District of Columbia v. Heller, 128 S.Ct. 2783 (2008), that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. The Court granted this right the same status as other individual rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as those protected in the First Amendment . . . . I understand the Solicitor General’s obligations to include deep respect for Supreme Court precedents like Heller and for the principle of stare decisis generally. There is no question, after Heller, that the Second Amendment guarantees Americans “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation."[19]

Elena Kagan - Judgepedia