President Obama has announced his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, and it’s not a very surprising choice: Solicitor General Elena Kagan.
The Good: During her deanship at Harvard Law, Kagan supported policy that prevented military recruiters from recruiting on campus, because she felt that the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy discriminated against gays and lesbians, even going so far as to say DADT was “a profound wrong – a moral injustice of the first order.” She is a very vocal supporter of the First Amendment and has written often on the subject. Kagan regularly butts heads with Chief Justice John Roberts and will likely be a foil to his consistent voting record which favors large corporations.
The Bad: The military recruitment thing could come back to haunt her in her confirmation hearings. Conservatives will call this “liberal elitism” at its highest form. She also faces heat from the left as she has defended the White House’s continued use of “battlefield law” to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely without trial.
The Ugly: Unfortunately, time seems to have soften Kagan’s opinions on LGBT rights. She has said that she doesn’t believe the right to same-sex marriage is guaranteed in the Constitution. She has also stated that the government’s ability to defend DADT is strong. Kagan is single and has no children which means it will only be a matter of time before conservatives begin whispering the dreaded “L” word. She has never gone public with her sexuality and I believe this will be a serious point of contention with her nomination.
What are your thoughts on the Kagan nomination? Do you think it’s the progressive change we thought we could believe in or just another safe bet by the Obama administration?