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☖ Forums → Discussion Forum → Obama to nominate Elena Kagan to Supreme Court
Obama to nominate Elena Kagan to Supreme Court
2010-05-09, 9:24 PM #1
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6997640.html

Kagan currently holds the position of Solicitor General, which means it's her job to argue on behalf of the federal government in any Supreme Court cases it's involved in. She's never been a judge, but she's a very bright lawyer who, by the very nature of her job, has to understand the sort of cases that are going to come before the Court. I listened to her oral arguments in the Citizens United case, and she's quick-witted and well-spoken. Of the candidates on Obama's short list, she was considered one of the more moderate. However, her positions on national security and executive power actually seem more in line with the Court's conservative wing.

Oh, and she's widely rumored to be a lesbian. So that will be fun.
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2010-05-09, 9:32 PM #2
She looks so much like one of my middle school teachers that I am absolutely creeped out.
2010-05-09, 10:21 PM #3
Looks so familiar...............
2010-05-09, 10:27 PM #4
She just has one of those faces.
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2010-05-10, 4:45 AM #5
Generic and uninteresting?

She looks like the guy who played Doc Ock in spiderman 2.
2010-05-10, 5:00 AM #6
No she looks like a cross between David Mitchell and Har Mar Superstar.
nope.
2010-05-10, 5:35 AM #7
.
Attachment: 23872/nZ1st.png (74,894 bytes)
.
2010-05-10, 6:32 AM #8
maybe she's a transexual. I guess she is a she.
He who controls the spice controls the universe-
2010-05-10, 9:40 AM #9
Well, it's evident enough from the looks of her why such a rumour would spread....
former entrepreneur
2010-05-10, 9:41 AM #10
She seems decent enough. Don't mind her on the court. Although, it appears she had a strong record of supporting Ben Bernanke's policies pre-housing crisis, which worries me a bit. But I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be dealing with the economy anyways.
"His Will Was Set, And Only Death Would Break It"

"None knows what the new day shall bring him"
2010-05-10, 9:55 AM #11
Goddamnit, it's Patton Oswalt in a dress.
2010-05-10, 10:00 AM #12
Goddammit, it's Eversor.
2010-05-10, 10:25 AM #13
[http://www.topnews.in/files/Chaz-Bono.jpg]

elena kagan totally looks like EVERYONE

that's chaz bono
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2010-05-10, 2:04 PM #14
No fat chicks?
:p
2010-05-10, 3:00 PM #15
in that front on view, she looks like one of my teachers.
Snail racing: (500 posts per line)------@%
2010-05-10, 3:43 PM #16
You don't mean the one I posted, right? Because like I said, that's Chaz Bono, not Elena Kagan.
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2010-05-10, 7:35 PM #17
[http://i.imgur.com/AU0SR.jpg]

I think she's a good choice, although if the republicans start to bring up her personal life it could get really ugly.
"If you watch television news, you will know less about the world than if you just drink gin straight out of the bottle."
--Garrison Keillor
2010-05-10, 8:13 PM #18
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/13/kagan
? :)
2010-05-10, 8:29 PM #19
Such a farce that the state controlled media is out there saying she will move the court to the Right. If bho is nominating her, she's a radical.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2010-05-10, 8:57 PM #20
State controlled media? What?
>>untie shoes
2010-05-10, 10:28 PM #21
Originally posted by Wookie06:
Such a farce that the state controlled media is out there saying she will move the court to the Right.


There's every indication that she's more conservative than John Paul Stevens, the justice she's replacing. Much like nearly every new justice on the Court has been more conservative than his or her predecessor since Lewis Powell replaced Hugo Black. (The exceptions are Ruth Bader Ginsburg and maybe Sonia Sotomayor, though at this point the latter's a toss-up.) To make a statement like this, it's almost as though...

Quote:
If basset hound orphans is nominating her, she's a radical.


...oh, yep. You don't actually know anything about Elena Kagan.
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2010-05-10, 10:34 PM #22
Originally posted by fishstickz:
although if the republicans start to bring up her personal life it could get really ugly.


or her face!

Anyway, is there even a remote chance that the republicans would pass up clinging to her personal life in an effort to make Obama's choice look bad?
Looks like we're not going down after all, so nevermind.
2010-05-10, 11:15 PM #23
It seems to me that Obama's hoping that Kagan will side w/ him regarding the 1st amendment & corporations. I really hope that's the case. I think that there are few issues that are more pressing.
? :)
2010-05-10, 11:52 PM #24
Originally posted by Mentat:
It seems to me that Obama's hoping that Kagan will side w/ him regarding the 1st amendment & corporations. I really hope that's the case. I think that there are few issues that are more pressing.


For all the good it'll do. Stevens dissented in the Citizens United case, so adding Kagan in his place isn't going to change any votes.

Personally, Kagan would not have been my first choice. She wouldn't have been my second choice, even out of just the four who got full interviews. Kagan's unquestionably qualified even though she's never been a judge, but I thought others, particularly Diane Wood, were more qualified. And I'm concerned by the views she's expressed about the extent of executive power to deal with terrorism.

I think Kagan will probably be a good justice. I'm less convinced that she's the right pick for right now. I think Obama would have been better off saving her for later in his term (potentially replacing Ginsburg or Kennedy), when he'll need to pick a more moderate candidate due to reduced Democrat numbers in the Senate.

I don't mean to be too negative here. It should be obvious based on my original post that I have a high opinion of her. Nevertheless, I can't help feeling a little disappointed.
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2010-05-11, 7:08 AM #25
Originally posted by Michael MacFarlane:
...oh, yep. You don't actually know anything about Elena Kagan.


Not much to know other than the fact that she's basically a student turned professor with some politically motivated legal work thrown in.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2010-05-11, 8:48 AM #26
i am suprisingly ok with her.
Welcome to the douchebag club. We'd give you some cookies, but some douche ate all of them. -Rob
2010-05-11, 9:42 AM #27
Originally posted by SiliconC:
.


mt first throught exactly.. Pauline Blart Mall Cop
eat right, exercise, die anyway
2010-05-11, 11:44 AM #28
Originally posted by Wookie06:
Not much to know other than the fact that she's basically a student turned professor with some politically motivated legal work thrown in.


And yet, armed with only this vast oversimplification of her career, you've managed to conclude she's a radical.
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2010-05-11, 2:14 PM #29
What's a "student turned professor?" Don't you have to be a student before you can be a professor?
2010-05-11, 2:33 PM #30
I can only assume he means that she went pretty quickly from being a student to being a professor. To the limited extent that that's true (she spent five years clerking and in private practice), I don't see why it would matter.
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2010-05-11, 4:51 PM #31
Yeah, gosh, we wouldn't want anybody whose shown an aptitude for interpreting law. Her most lauded accomplishment was throwing the military out of Harvard and that united 8 justices against her. You know how hard it is to get those guys to agree on anything. If she wasn't a radical, basset hound orphans wouldn't have nominated her. ***** republicans probably won't filibuster this outrage anyway.
"I would rather claim to be an uneducated man than be mal-educated and claim to be otherwise." - Wookie 03:16

2010-05-11, 5:00 PM #32
I like the fact that she isn't already a judge. Many past Supreme Court justices weren't judges before being appointed (Chief Justice Rehnquist is a recent example), and since the other 8 SCOTUS justices previously were lower court judges, it's a positive in my eyes to have someone that brings a different type of experience to the court.

[QUOTE=Micheal MacFarlane]And I'm concerned by the views she's expressed about the extent of executive power to deal with terrorism.[/QUOTE]
This certainly doesn't put the issue to rest, but it's worth noting (source):
Quote:
In a 2005 letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Kagan and three other deans of major American law schools wrote to oppose legislation proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to strip the courts of the power to review the detention practices, treatment and adjudications of guilt and punishment for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"To put this most pointedly," the letter said, "were the Graham amendment to become law, a person suspected of being a member of al-Qaeda could be arrested, transferred to Guantanamo, detained indefinitely ... subjected to inhumane treatment, tried before a military commission and sentenced to death without any express authorization from Congress and without review by any independent federal court. The American form of government was established precisely to prevent this kind of unreviewable exercise of power over the lives of individuals."

"When dictatorships have passed" similar laws, said the deans, "our government has rightly challenged such acts as fundamentally lawless. The same standard should apply to our own government."
2010-05-11, 5:24 PM #33
Originally posted by Wookie06:
Yeah, gosh, we wouldn't want anybody whose shown an aptitude for interpreting law.


See, this is where not knowing anything about the candidate gets to be a real handicap. Kagan clerked for a Supreme Court judge, worked for a prominent DC law firm, written widely-cited pieces on First Amendment and administrative law, and served for the past 14 months as Solicitor General, a position that demands an understanding of the law comparable to that of the justices themselves. They don't call the SG the "tenth justice" for nothing.

Quote:
Her most lauded accomplishment was throwing the military out of Harvard


No, that's the "accomplishment" you're most interested in highlighting. That doesn't make it her most lauded.

Quote:
and that united 8 justices against her.


You make it sound so personal. She made the best argument she could on behalf of her university. It wasn't good enough. So be it.

Quote:
You know how hard it is to get those guys to agree on anything.


I have a pretty good idea how hard it is, yes. Do you?

Quote:
If she wasn't a radical, basset hound orphans wouldn't have nominated her.


Begging the question. Again.

Quote:
***** republicans probably won't filibuster this outrage anyway.


Unless they want the next nominee to be someone like Diane Wood or Sidney Thomas -- more liberal, and not subject to the complaint that they "lack judicial experience" -- probably not.
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2010-05-11, 5:42 PM #34
I love this. MacFarlane gets to show his smarts.

Go Michael MacFarlane!
>>untie shoes
2010-05-11, 5:43 PM #35
Originally posted by Wuss:
I like the fact that she isn't already a judge. Many past Supreme Court justices weren't judges before being appointed (Chief Justice Rehnquist is a recent example), and since the other 8 SCOTUS justices previously were lower court judges, it's a positive in my eyes to have someone that brings a different type of experience to the court.


As a rule, I like circuit court judges for the Supreme Court. They already tend to be some of the best legal minds in the country, and I think prior experience interpreting many kinds of law is very valuable and can be hard (but not impossible) to come by elsewhere. If I had to choose, I'd rather see greater geographic diversity than I would greater diversity of professional experience among justices.

Really, I just want to know that the nominee is smart enough, knowledgeable enough, and objective enough for the job. Kagan's not a judge, but she fits the bill.

Quote:
This certainly doesn't put the issue to rest, but it's worth noting (source):


I did see this a little while after I posted yesterday, along with some other articles that similarly suggest Kagan's conservatism on national security issues has been overstated. We'll probably have to wait for the confirmation hearings to learn more, but it's encouraging.
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