Elena Kagan, SCOTUS Nominee - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

[Foxfyre]

Okay, we now are beginning to get some actual papers in to evaluate Elena Kagan, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

I suspect Ms. Kagan will be confirmed without a lot of problems. But there is controversial stuff coming out now, plus a possible move from the Obama Administration to keep us from seeing some of that.

So what do you think.

This woman is a saint?
This woman is an ideologue who shouldn't sit on the high court?
This woman is as good as we're likely to get?
This woman is unacceptable in too many ways not to challenge the nomination?

What are your thoughts?

Jun 4, 3:40 PM (ET)
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS

WASHINGTON (AP) - As a domestic policy adviser to former President Bill Clinton, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan helped defend the veto of a measure that would have banned late-term abortions with few exceptions.

Files handed over to Congress by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library reveal Kagan's role playing defense against a Republican Congress that was trying to place new limits on abortion rights.

Kagan helped Clinton articulate his support for a narrow health exception to the late-term abortion ban.

The memos and notes are part of a a 46,500-page batch of records released Friday.
My Way News - Kagan helped defend late-term abortion ban veto

Kagan Documents Are Released
The Clinton Presidential Library on Friday released the first batch of 160,000 pages of records from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's service in the former president's White House.
Law News, Legal News, Court News, Litigation Reports & Regulations at WSJ.com - WSJ.com

Kagan's memos and notes – part of a 46,500-page batch of records released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library – reveal her role as the administration was playing defense against a Republican Congress that was trying to impose new limits on abortion rights.

On the late-term abortion bill, "I support an exception that takes effect only when a woman faces real, serious health consequences," Kagan handwrote on the draft of a letter Clinton was penning to a Catholic bishop dismayed by the veto.

That position angered both abortion rights proponents and foes. But it was typical of a pragmatic streak in Kagan, President Barack Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, that's evident throughout the newly released records.

The files – whose release has been eagerly awaited by senators trying to find clues to what kind of justice Kagan might be – hint at some of Kagan's policy views on issues that could crop up during her confirmation hearings.

She wrote in 1998 that encouraging a new federal law banning assisted suicide would be "a fairly terrible idea."

She expressed the opinion in a handwritten note during an internal administration debate over whether doctors in Oregon should be allowed to prescribe fatal drugs to help terminally ill patients commit suicide.

The papers also detail Kagan's deep involvement in tough negotiations between liberal and conservative lawmakers on an ambitious – and ultimately unsuccessful – anti-smoking initiative.

She warned that slapping tough marketing restrictions on the tobacco industry as part of the measure might be unconstitutional.
Kagan Files From Clinton Era Headed To Senate

In a letter to Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee Republican, Robert Bauer, counsel to Obama, implied the president may use executive privilege to hide some memos Elena Kagan wrote when she served in the Clinton White House.

“President Obama does not intend to assert executive privilege over any of the documents requested by the Committee,” Bauer writes.

“Of course, President Clinton also has an interest in these records, and his representative is reviewing them now,” he adds.
White House: Obama may use executive privilege to withhold Kagan documents | Kagan Watch

 

[Modbert]

She's not Liberal, and the court will go to the right more whenever Justice Stevens steps down.

 

[ConHog]

I actually commend Obama for this nominee. I think she's fair minded and actually will use the CON to mold her opinions rather than trying to mold the CON to fit her opinions.

 

[Foxfyre]

I'm reserving judgment at this point and will continue to read whatever I can find on Ms. Kagan and also will hope to tune in to all or most of the hearings. My initial impression is that we could do a whole lot worse than Ms. Kagan.

Of course that's what I thought about President Obama too during the campaign--at least based on most of his campaign rhetoric.

I was mostly wrong about Obama. He has turned out to be nothing like his campaign rhetoric.

Don't know yet about Kagan.