Who said Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was the greatest lawyer

[pnwmom]

in the 20th Century? After having an opportunity to clerk for him?

Elena Kagan, that's who -- the nominee many here are afraid may be too conservative.

I'm looking forward to her tenure on the Court.

[DefenseLawyer]

1. Talk is cheap

Is that really the deciding point? Some throwaway line in a magazine article or something? Wow she praised justice Marshall. That's a gutsy move I tell ya. She also praised numerous right wing Bush nominees. Uh oh. It's sad we have to twist and turn to find justification for these nominees. When the Court is already so far right this pick is more than disappointing.

[depakid]

2. On a side note, Earl Rogers was probably the greatest lawyer of the 20th Century

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Rogers

Some fun stuff here:

http://plaintifftriallawyertips.com/2007/06/30/earl-rogers-one-of-americas-great-trial-lawyers-with-lessons-for-lawyers-today.aspx

Of course, that's not meant to detract in any way from Thurgood Marshall, who was a damn fine attorney in his own right, and a duly respected jurist.

[FrenchieCat]

4. She Clerked for him.......

that's not the same as praising.

Means she applied and he picked her....then she worked for him.

[DefenseLawyer]

6. Uh yeah, I know what that means. Thanks though.

LEST I be confused by what clerking means. I think I figured it out though. A clerkship at the Supreme Court mean one is connected, ambitious and smart, or at least Law Review smart, and from an Ivy League School. You show me anything she has done in her career that merits comparison to Thurgood Marshall and I'll gladly take note. She is at best a member of the club. Unfortunately the club not only has no members who are ordinary Americans, no one in the club even knows any ordinary Americans.

[provis99]

9. Clarence Thomas clerked at the Supreme Court.

You want to take back what you said about law clerks being smart?

[DefenseLawyer]

11. When did Clarence Thomas clerk at the Supreme Court?

I must have missed that.

[pnwmom]

7. She said he was the greatest lawyer of the 20th century. That's praise. n/t

[usregimechange]

3. Doesn't sound like someone intent on moving the court to the right to me

[tkmorris]

5. Really? Try this

"Kagan called a memorandum that she wrote as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall “the dumbest thing I ever read.” “Let me step back a little if I may and talk about my role in Justice Marshall’s chambers…We wrote memos on literally every single case in which there was a petition…I don’t want to say there is nothing of me in these memos, but I think in large measure these memos were written in the context of–you’re an assistant for a justice, you’re trying to facilitate his work, and to enable him to advance his goals and purposes as a justice…"

Sounds to me as if when she clerked for him she tried to represent his views, not her own, and in so doing she wrote "the dumbest thing I ever read". What was that incredibly stupid thing she wrote to support Mr. Marshall's position, the position she now thinks is "dumb"? This: “I indeed believe that my 22-year-old analysis, written for Justice Marshall, was deeply mistaken. It seems now utterly wrong to me to say that religious organizations generally should be precluded from receiving funds for providing the kinds of services contemplated by the Adolescent Family Life Act. I instead agree with the Bowen Court’s statement that ‘he facially neutral projects authorized by the AFLA-including pregnancy testing, adoption counseling and referral services, prenatal and postnatal care, educational services, residential care, child care, consumer education, etc. are not themselves “specifically religious activities,” and they are not converted into such activities by the fact that they are carried out by organizations with religious affiliations.’ As that Court recognized, the use of a grant in a particular way by a particular religious organization might constitute a violation of the Establishment Clause – for example, if the organization used the grant to fund what the Court called ‘specifically religious activity.’ But I think it incorrect (or, as I more colorfully said at the hearing, ‘the dumbest thing I ever heard’) essentially to presume that a religious organization will use a grant of this kind in an impermissible manner.”

So she thinks the dumbest opinion she ever wrote is that religious organizations should not receive public funds. Really?

[pnwmom]

8. She now thinks it was incorrect for her to write that religious organizations

should never be eligible for public funds, even when they are performing "neutral projects" not related to religion. Her original position does seem extreme to me, and I'm comfortable with her changing it.

[dems_rightnow]

12. Read it

Her original concern was that they'd be used for religious activities. Many such institutions provide useful and desirable non-secular services.

[tavalon]

10. At first glance, I'm not upset

I'm being told that as a liberal, I should be furious. I'm not really seeing it. Tomorrow (today, actually) everyone here will have vetted her and I might change my mind. I've been known to do that on occasion.

I have a lot of things I'm angry at this administration for. This, not so much. I never thought Obama would go liberal. He isn't a liberal so...

[Bitwit1234]

13. I know he was ill, but if he had only held off three more months

we would not had Bush as president and all these outrageous supreme court decisions facing us. If he had held out, President Clinton would have been able to make the supreme court appointment and Clarence Thomas would just be another face in the crowd.

[saltpoint]

14. Recommended.