Kagan in Context: Shafting Progressive Values

[laststeamtrain]

Norman Solomon

Posted: May 10, 2010 05:06 AM

Kagan in Context: Shafting Progressive Values

If President Obama has his way, Elena Kagan will replace John Paul Stevens -- and the Supreme Court will move rightward. The nomination is very disturbing, especially because it's part of a pattern.

The White House is in the grip of conventional centrist wisdom. Grim results stretch from Afghanistan to the Gulf of Mexico to communities across the USA.

<snip>

"During the course of her Senate confirmation hearings as Solicitor General, Kagan explicitly endorsed the Bush administration's bogus category of 'enemy combatant,' whose implementation has been a war crime in its own right," University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle noted last month. "Now, in her current job as U.S. Solicitor General, Kagan is quarterbacking the continuation of the Bush administration's illegal and unconstitutional positions in U.S. federal court litigation around the country, including in the U.S. Supreme Court."

Boyle added: "Kagan has said 'I love the Federalist Society.' This is a right-wing group; almost all of the Bush administration lawyers responsible for its war and torture memos are members of the Federalist Society."

The departing Justice Stevens was a defender of civil liberties. Unless the Senate refuses to approve Kagan for the Supreme Court, the nation's top court is very likely to become more hostile to civil liberties and less inclined to put limits on presidential power.

<snip>

For more than 15 months, evidence has mounted that President Obama routinely combines progressive rhetoric with contrary actions. As one bad decision after another has emanated from the Oval Office, some progressives have favored denial -- even though, if the name "Bush" or "McCain" had been attached to the same presidential policies, the same progressives would have been screaming bloody murder.

<more>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/norman-solomon/kagan-in-context-shafting_b_569659.html

[Demeter]

1. Gonna Leap In Front of That Freight Train? Be My Guest

The man has an agenda, which unfortunately isn't anything a Democrat can be proud of. And no matter how much fleece it's wrapped in, I can still smell the rank wolf.

[dotymed]

3. Organize....

We out number "them" millions to one. Turn off the fucking tee vee propaganda, and let's organize our numbers.

[Scuba]

7. And here's the rallying cry...

1. America has been highjacked by special interests, corporations having "free speech" rights, etc.

2. We can take America back, without bloodshed or great human suffering simply by applying the Constitution.

3. Our candidates will take an Oath that a) we'll ban "corporate free speech" and b) we'll pass term limit and other anti-corruption legislation to hold future elected officials accountable.

[dotymed]

10. 4. All elections are publicly financed

5. Corporations are not exempt from income taxes

6. The top income tax rate, for the wealthiest 5% of our nation will return to 1970 levels (we weren't "socialists" then)

[Scuba]

14. Good stuff, thanks

[w4rma]

4. Kagan is a woman. (nt)

[unc70]

8. I believe the "he" in #1 was referring to Obama n/t

[AndyA]

2. DENIAL is the word.

People don't want to believe what they know to be the truth inside.

This isn't change, this is continuation of a policy to push America more to the right.

And yet they'll be coming around asking for donations from progressives for the 2012 elections, and they'll be expecting support because "we're not quite as bad as they are."

And that's apparently the best anyone could possibly hope for. Some change. :eyes:

[emilyg]

16. I won't donate.

[66 dmhlt]

5. Kagan: "But you are NOT my people."

Including some context to Kagan's comment will add some insight:

When the Harvard Law chapter of the Federalist Society hosted the organization’s annual student symposium in February, hundreds of law students, academics and lawyers filled the chandeliered Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., to hear a talk by Judge David Sentelle, a conservative member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Dean Kagan introduced the judge.

“I love the Federalist Society,” she announced, “But you are not my people.”
(Emphasis added)

Source: http://www.lawschool.com/berenson.htm

[Demeter]

6. Nobody with a Sense of Law, Justice or History Could LOVE the Federalist Society

although she might have a fondness for certain members of it.

It's total bullshit she's selling.

[laststeamtrain]

18. Maybe she said it because there's so many WASPs in the Federalist Society?

:sarcasm:

[moodforaday]

9. Emptywheel at Firedoglake isn't happy either

and I trust her judgement:

Elena Kagan Will Be The Most Unqualified Justice In History | Emptywheel
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/05/10/elena-kagan-will-be-the-most-unqualified-justice-in-history/

[freebrew]

11. The most unqualified?

I can think of 5 ahead of her right now...

[Myrina]

12. Her main qualification is that she's "bipartisan".

POTUS seems to value that above all else, despite the fact that it's gotten him less than nowhere over the past 18 months.

:shrug:

[Dr.Phool]

13. A Federalist Society groupie.

Now she can sit with her loved ones. Scalia, Roberts, Thomas, and Alito!

[IndianaGreen]

15. Endorsed by the likes of Ken Starr

Very comforting to know that!

:sarcasm:

[elleng]

17. A pragmatic New Yorker

"Where I grew up — on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — nobody ever admitted to voting for Republicans,” Ms. Kagan wrote, in a kind of Democrat’s lament. She described the Manhattan of her childhood, where those who won office were “real Democrats — not the closet Republicans that one sees so often these days but men and women committed to liberal principles and motivated by the ideal of an affirmative and compassionate government.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/us/politics/11kagan.html?hp