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The Spectacle Blog
We at the Washington Times today explain why senators are derelict in their duty if they don't do more investigation into troubling questions about Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's ethics.
Ms. Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general, was directly responsible for altering a key medical report in a way that stacked the deck in favor of keeping the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion legal. She then gave testimony to the SenateJudiciary Committee that appeared to veer from the actual record.
The ethical questions are threefold. First, was it unethical for her to alter the original medical-report language? Second, was it unethical for her to fail to inform the courts when a series of judges relied explicitly on her altered language in reaching their decisions to keep partial-birth abortion legal for an entire extra decade? Third, did her testimony under oath before the SenateJudiciary Committee veer far enough from the actual record to constitute a major ethical breach?
These are far from the only reasons, of course, to oppose Ms. Kagan's nomination. She believes government "doles" out speech rights at its pleasure. She believes government may prohibit political pamphlets. She openly flouted the law to harm the military in a time of war. She is so hostile to gun rights that the NRA abandoned its usual silence on Supreme Court nominees and openly opposes her. She is a "transnationalist" who would at times subject American courts to foreign law. And she believes judges should overweigh the scales of justice in favor of the downtrodden, rather than being neutral arbiters.
This is bad stuff.
Let me take this opportunity, by the way, to lay a garland on the shoulders of Alabama's U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. He has done a superb, brave, dignified, firm, polite, respectful, but tough-minded job -- an often lonely job -- at bringing up many of these issues, at exposing Ms. Kagan's record, at explaining principled reasons for dissent without ever getting nasty or unfair or smearing Ms. Kagan's character. He has laid out a compelling case against her, day after day, week after week, without enough public credit from me or anybody else on the right. Look at his web sites (personal and committee) to see the wealth of information he has gathered and the huge amount of work he and his staff have done. Many kudos to the good senator.
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More Blog Posts by Quin Hillyer
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/30/kagan-abortive-ethics-sessions
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Oldefarte| 7.30.10 @ 11:57AM
I wholeheartedly concur regarding Jeff Sessions, who is not only a credit to his/my state of Alabama [ROLL, TIDE, ROLL!] but also to the nation at large. I'm simply applalled at Republican congressmen [Snowe, Colling, Graham,etc] who are allowed by their party leadership to vote for either/or Sotomayor or Kagan. There has to be a way for a party reprimand of these disloyal traitors. To my knowledge, if all so called Republicans held firm at voting NO on these lifetime liberal SCOTUS plants, the Democrats at present WOULD NOT have the 60 votes to confirm either of them. If the tables were turned, there is no way in Hades that Democrats would allow one of their member-senators to vote yes!!!!!!!!!!
TMac| 8.1.10 @ 7:35PM
OF,I agree with everything you said about your/our/my state and Jeff Sessions, except the Roll Tide part. War Eagle!
SoCon| 7.30.10 @ 12:13PM
Thanks for the heads up, Quin--I'll call the good Senator's office today and thank him.
John W.| 7.30.10 @ 4:01PM
Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Senator Sessions, even briefly, can attest that he exemplifies all the virtues implied by the phrase “Southern Gentleman.”
Oldefarte, you wrote: “There has to be a way for a party reprimand of these disloyal traitors.” There is, in two to four years. And to preempt the traditional excuse for not reprimanding them at the ballot box: better an enemy to my front than a traitor at my back.
Oldefarte| 7.31.10 @ 11:23AM
True, John W., very true! Beyond being the 'Southern Gentleman' that you accurately describe, Sessions is [and has been] a damned good AG/Senator for the State of Alabama. More importantly to this subject, he alone has stood up and declared his reservations concerning the legal philosophies of both Sotomayor and Kagan. No other Republican to my knowledge has had the political GUTS to tell the truth about these two nominees and/or to fight for their nominational defeat. THAT to me is the problem, in that we now have a bunch of RINOS, WIMPS, CLOSET DEMOCRATS OR WHATEVER ELSE YOU WISH TO LABEL THEM AS that are not representing the various people/constituents of their districts/states. It seems to me that both party's congressmen [obviously Democrats], after becoming elected to national office, proceed to Washington DC and become embroiled in the social, liberal, group-think atmosphere of that northeast region of the country. My point is that they [say Republicans] are not representing their constituents back home and should be forced to either pledge to begin doing so on these [say SCOTUS] issues or eliminated/defeated from office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bruce| 7.30.10 @ 5:30PM
All true, but alas - all for naught. Kagan will be confirmed - make no mistake. As long as the GOP is burdened with the likes of Graham, Snowe, Collins, and Lugar, we will continue to be at the mercy of a party who would in all probability confirm Adolph Hitler.
Missy| 7.30.10 @ 8:24PM
That's why I can't stand RINOs.
Long Ben| 7.31.10 @ 3:07AM
The Left and Kagans veiw goes something like this
" certainly Congress shall make no law , but there's nothing to prevent the court ".
Yosemeti Sam| 7.31.10 @ 11:23AM
The question is then , will senator Sessions - Filibuster?
If not under these spot-lighted ignoble
philosophical character traits of a Leftoid prospective member to the SCOTUS - then when?
Bare your collective souls - senate Republicans.
For all to - see!
Carol| 8.2.10 @ 9:10AM
I live in Michigan and consider myself an Independent who leans right, so you can imagine how much influence I have over my senator, but I wrote him this letter anyway:
I am writing you in regard to the confirmation of Elena Kagan. Elena Kagan, while Dean of Harvard, used her authoritive position to act out her own personal distain, as well as Harvard's, for the law Don't Ask Don't Tell by discriminating against military recruiters on campus. Kagan encouraged students to protest against military recruiters ( http://www.thecrimson.com/arti.....-decision/) and she made their jobs as difficult as she could by moving the recruiters from the campus centered Office of Career Services building to a small office in another building. Instead of attacking a law that she disagreed with, she attacked the military and the recruiters on campus. I find these actions disdainful and illogical. Our government passed this law. If she wanted it changed she should have attacked the law not military personnel trying to do a job for our country. Our military is most important to the safety and future of our country and I abhor Kagan's actions against them.
I also find her lack of ethics disturbing. Kagan, in her determination to defeat a move to ban Partial Birth Abortion, deliberately moved to alter the results determined by ACOG, a group of distinguished physicians. Her unethical interference wrongly influenced the United States Supreme Court Judge's determinations because they did not know about the original findings of ACOG.
I have listened to the confirmation hearings and researched Elena Kagan and I find her lacking the fine qualifications I deem necessary to attaining a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. Please vote NO to Kagan's confirmation.
I have not received an answer and don't expect to, but I wanted him to know what I thought.
Jonny| 8.3.10 @ 2:46AM
I vote yes.