Speculation in Washington is that President Obama will announce the selection of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court early this week. Kagan would be selected to fill the seat of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.
Kagan is former Dean of the Harvard Law School, and felt by many on the left as the intellectual counterweight of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. That's good, as she'll need her wits about her as she attempts an intellectual soft shoe around comments she once made regarding the Senate judicial confirmation process.
In 1995, Kagan wrote an article criticizing the process as a "vapid and hollow charade" because nominees are not forced to say what they think about disputed issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and privacy.
However, when asked to comment about the article last year, Kagan appears to have backpedalled, dismissing it as the brash words of a young Judiciary Committee staffer. "I wrote that when I was in a position of sitting where the staff is now sitting and feeling a bit frustrated", she said, "that I really wasn't understanding completely what the judicial nominee in front of me meant and what she thought."
In other words, I had no idea that in 1995 I would eventually find myself as a nominee to the Supreme Court. And now that I do, I have no intention of jeopardizing this gig by tipping my hand.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
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3 comments:
I think I posted on this when the Wise Latina was nominated, and I know it is a gig of a lifetime, but I wish a nominee would just for once sit at the table and say, "You want to know what I think? Have your numerous staffers pour through my lifes work, as recorded in decisions I have written. Draw your own conclusions from that."
They're just "throwing a bone" to the gay lobby. Or in this case "throwing a carpet to munch on".
CW, you wrote about 0bamaisms. I wonder if anyone is keeping track of the "pivots" this administration (or its lap-dogs) have taken wrt topical subjects.
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