Elena Kagan chosen by Obama for Supreme Court
(AP)
Political News
AP - President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court on Monday, declaring the former Harvard Law School dean "one of the nation's foremost legal minds." She would be the court's youngest justice and give it three female members for the first time.
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court
A Barnyard Smell in Chicago, Harvard and Washington
By James Petras
Elena Kagan joins a long list of key Obama appointees who have long-standing ties to the pro-Israel power configuration. Like Barack Obama, Elena Kagan started her legal apprenticeship with the Chicago Judge Abner Mitva, an ardent Zionist, who hailed the newly elected President Obama as "America's first Jewish President", probably his soundest judgment. Ref. Source 8
Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Attacked Pro-Life Advocates in 1980 Essay
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- An essay that Obama Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan wrote in 1980 has been unearthed and it provides some insight into her view of pro-life advocates. The article she wrote for the Daily Princetonian a week after Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 election has Kagan disparaging pro-life advocates.
Reagan won a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter and Kagan's essay lamented that victory and had her hoping for a "more leftist left" in the 1984 elections.
"Even after the returns came in, I found it hard to conceive of the victories of these anonymous but Moral Majority-backed opponents" of certain pro-abortion candidates, Kagan wrote.
She called them "avengers of "innocent life"" who were "beneficiaries of a general turn to the right and a profound disorganization on the left."
Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee noticed the comment and the scare quotes around the phrase "innocent life" -- clearly inferring that pro-life advocates have a misread on the moral status of unborn children.
"Kagan may have betrayed a possible personal animus towards the pro-life movement in a 1980 essay lamenting Republican gains in the 1980 election, in which she referred disparagingly to [pro-life candidates]," Johnson told LifeNews.com.
"Was Ms. Kagan so dismissive of the belief that unborn children are members of the human family that she felt it necessary to put the term 'innocent life' in quote marks, or does she have another explanation?" Johnson wondered. Ref. Source 1
Americans Still Divided on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)
New polling from Rasmussen finds Americans are still split on the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. The same percentage oppose President Barack Obama's selection as support it -- which is consistent with the first poll Rasmussen took after the nomination.
The new survey finds 39% of voters believe Kagan should be confirmed by the Senate, while another 39% say she should not be confirmed. Another 22 percent are still undecided.
A week ago, immediately following Obama's announcement, a Rasmussen Reports poll found 33% said she should be confirmed, 33% disagreed, and 34% were undecided.
Support for Kagan's confirmation among Democrats has jumped dramatically over the past week from 47% to 68%. Opposition among Republicans has risen from 54% in the previous survey to 61%. Among voters not affiliated with either party, 32% favor confirmation, while 42% are opposed, up eight points from a week ago.
"By way of comparison, support for Kagan's confirmation is a bit lower than support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor a week after her nomination. In both cases, support declined slightly in the week following the nomination," Rasmussen noted.
Virtually unchanged from last week is the finding that 83% of all voters think it is at least somewhat likely that Kagan will be confirmed, including 55% who say confirmation is very likely. Ref. Source 1
Hearings on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Start June 28
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will start hearings on pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on June 28. Kagan is the second pro-abortion judicial activist President Barack Obama has selected for the nation's highest court following Sonia Sotomayor.
If confirmed, she would replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens and maintain the 5-4 pro-abortion majority that has kept Roe v. Wade and its legacy of 52 million abortions in place.
Today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a pro-abortion Vermont Democrat, announced his panel will hold hearings in late June and wrap up with a vote before the July 4 recess.
Republican Jeff Sessions, a pro-life Alabama senator who is the top GOP lawmaker on the panel, complained that Republicans wanted more time to sift through a laundry list of new memos and papers on Kagan -- including one showing her advising ex-President Bill Clinton how to avoid political fallout from vetoing a partial-birth abortion ban.
"Sometimes we just disagree about how things ought to be done. I know that we had asked that we be able to have the hearing after the recess, just to give our colleagues more time to study the record and maybe prepare their remarks," Session said, according to Fox News.
He added, "We'll try to do our best to conduct an effective hearing, even if I would have preferred a little more time." Ref. Source 6
At Confirmation Hearings, Kagan Faces Questioning on Political Leanings, Gun Ownership, Military Recruiting, and Abortion
The Senate Judiciary Committee will continue questioning Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan today after she mounted a spirited defense against her critics Tuesday. Fifteen years ago, Kagan called the Supreme Court confirmation process "a vapid and hollow charade" where nominees simply offer a "repetition of platitudes." Although many noted that Kagan did not significantly depart from this script, her confirmation did have a few heated as well as light moments in exchanges with Senators from both sides of the aisle. We play excerpts, and get commentary from Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, who has known Kagan for 25 years and serves as special counsel to President Obama. Ref. Source 9
Newspaper: Kagan's Support for Infanticide-Abortion Should be "Kiss of Death"
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Washington Times released an editorial column today on the nomination of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. The Times says Kagan's supporting partial-birth abortion (infanticide) should be the "kiss of death" for her nomination.
"Senators who vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court will need to answer this fall for ignoring legal ethics while contributing to the Obama administration's culture of death," the Times says.
The editorial refers to the occasions on which she, during the Clinton administration, worked to persuade two medical organizations to change their opinion from originally stating that partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary for women.
"Kagan acted unethically - while an aide to President Clinton and in testimony last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee - to promote the monstrosity known as partial-birth abortion," the Time says.
The Times' editorial staff is not surprised Obama would pick an abortion advocate who is credited with helping keep partial-birth abortions legal for years more as "this nomination is in tune with President Obama's career-long devaluation of human life."
The paper says Kagan "may be more responsible than anyone for keeping partial-birth abortion legal for an extra decade." Ref. Source 6
Elena Kagan chosen by Obama for Supreme Court
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Senate Republican Leadership Now Unanimously Opposes Pro-Abortion Kagan
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the chairman of the Senate GOP conference, announced his opposition today to the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor general Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. His announcement makes it so every top Republican lawmaker now opposes Kagan. [..] With his announcement, Kagan now has only two GOP supporters, Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Dick Lugar of Indiana. Both are pro-life but they say presidents should be entitled to have their Supreme Court nominees confirmed. Ref. Source 5