Kagan Is the One

She was not my choice for this post, and I am disappointed at her selection.

President Obama Monday will officially nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court, his second selection for the high court. Multiple news outlets and the Associated Press are reporting that Kagan, 50, is Obama’s choice to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

She has never tried a case in court but was considered an early favorite for the job, causing intense speculation Friday as the White House defended her record and some publications said it was highly likely she’d be his pick. Kagan served as a clerk in the late 1980s for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and was a clerk for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. She worked at a private Washington law firm before taking a job in the Clinton administration.

Kagan is the first woman to hold the solicitor general post and until she took that position she was dean of Harvard Law School, also the first female to hold that job. Under her six-year tenure Kagan helped the law campus open new buildings and she updated the curriculum. She also was recognized for fundraising prowess. But Kagan banned military recruiters from campus, a sure lightning rod issue the GOP will focus on during her confirmation hearings.

She was a Harvard professor with courses on administrative law, constitutional law, civil procedure and issues involving the separation of powers until becoming dean in 2003. She was nominated to the Harvard dean position by Larry Summers, then Harvard president and now chief Obama economic adviser. She served in the Clinton White House’s Domestic Policy Council.

She and Obama both taught at University of Chicago law school. She attended Princeton and Oxford and, like Obama, received her law degree from Harvard. She also was one of the editors of the Harvard Law Review.

In March 2009 Kagan was confirmed by the senate on a 61-31 vote. Seven Republicans voted in favor of her nomination, joining all of the Democrats. (Sen. Arlen Specter – then a Republican – was among Kagan’s opponents.) Her nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Clinton in 1999 was blocked by Republicans… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <TPM>

Here is some more background on her.

…Kagan is uniformly regarded as extremely smart, having risen to two of the most prestigious positions in all of law:  dean of Harvard Law School and Solicitor General.

In government and academia, she has shown a special capacity to bring together people with deeply held, conflicting views.  On a closely divided Supreme Court, that is an especially important skill.

Conservatives who she has dealt with respectfully (for example, Charles Fried and former Solicitors General to Republican Presidents) will likely come forward to rebut the claim that she is an extreme liberal.

She would also be only the fourth woman named to the Court in history, and President Obama would have named two.  At age 50, she may serve for a quarter century or more, which would likely make her the President’s longest lasting legacy.

As with John Roberts, her service in a previous presidential Administration exposed her to a number of decisionmakers [sic], who have confidence in her approach to legal questions.

The fact that she lacks a significant paper trail means that there is little basis on which to launch attacks against her, and no risk of a bruising Senate fight, much less a filibuster.

And finally, one point is often overlooked:  Kagan had some experience on Capitol Hill and significant experience in the Executive Branch, not only as an attorney in the White House counsel’s office, but also as an important official dealing with domestic affairs.  She has thus worked in the process of governing and does not merely come from what has recently been criticized (unfairly, in my view) [not in mine] as the “judicial monastery.”… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <SCOTUSblog>

This citation is only a small part of an extensive article that covers her career and positions in depth.  I strongly urge you to click through and read it in its entirety.

While not the best choice, she is not the worst either.  On the plus side, she has the intellectual acumen to serve as a foil to that lying SOB, John “I promise to respect stare decisis” Roberts.  Also, while Dean at Harvard, she did oppose allowing military recruiters on campus, because they discriminate against LGBT people.  Furthermore, I like the idea that she is not a judge and can bring a more real life perspective to the Court.  On the minus side, she appears to have too much respect for executive privilege.

I don’t her having an effect on the current balance of the court.  At worst, she will move the the Court only a slight nudge to the right.

When Obama announced her nomination today, she will go under the microscope, and we will learn more about her.  Before I commit myself to supporting or opposing her nomination, I want to see what we find out.

Update: It’s official.