Kagan

Justice Elena 'rubber stamp' Kagan?
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 6/18/2010 6:00:00 AM
A judicial watchdog organization dedicated to ensuring a fair and impartial judiciary says Elena Kagan, if confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice, will be a "reliable rubber stamp" for President Obama's liberal agenda.

As the June 28 confirmation hearings draw closer, the Judicial Crisis Network has been poring over nearly 47,000 pages of recently released documents from the Clinton Presidential Library on Kagan's work for the Clinton White House. The JCN is pulling for a delay in the hearings, arguing that the delayed release of the documents -- which did not begin until June 4 -- leaves insufficient time for investigation and analysis.

Despite that short fuse, Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Washington, DC-based group, says the documents constitute "further evidence of [Kagan's] decidedly liberal legal and policy decisions." Kagan, she says, has been a consistent liberal on every policy issue from abortion to gun rights to removing religious language from the public square.

"President Obama has been embattled in his legislative agenda. [There have been] a lot of constitutional challenges even to some of things he's tried to push through," she points out. "And I think she's his idea of how to ensure that these things get through constitutional scrutiny. He wants someone he can trust in the Supreme Court.

"But we want someone who's really going to give constitutional scrutiny to some of these issues and not just be a reliable rubber stamp for Obama's agenda," she concludes.

Severino believes a substantial number of senators could vote against Kagan, but admits it probably will not be enough to ultimately stop her confirmation. Still, the organization is hopeful its online petition will have some influence in delaying the hearings.