So. Baptist Policy Expert Troubled by Kagan's Record
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has troubling views on the role of judges, abortion and homosexuality, warned a prominent Southern Baptist policy expert.
With the Senate confirmation hearings taking place this week, Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is laying out Kagan's history to provide insight into her ideology.
Land described her views on certain critical issues as "alarming," including her great admiration of activist judges.
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"I, along with many others, am alarmed that she considers former Israeli Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak to be her judicial hero," Land writes in an article titled "Elena Kagan: The right choice for the Court?" posted on the ERLC website. "He is well known for his extreme views on judicial activism, even stating that 'the constitution thus becomes a living norm and not a fossil, preventing the enslavement of the present to the past.'"
Her mentor is Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court and who is known for his liberal judicial record.
But during Wednesday's hearing, Kagan asserted that she is "on nobody's team" and tried to brush aside Republican efforts to paint her as a judge that would legislate from the bench.
"I mean, the worst kind of thing you can say of a judge is he or she is results-oriented," Kagan said at the confirmation hearing. "It suggests that a judge is kind of picking sides irrespective of what the law requires."
"The judge should be trying to figure out as best she can what the law does require, and not going in and saying, 'You know, I don't really care about the law, you know, this side should win.'"
Kagan, who is currently the U.S. solicitor general, is the only nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court in the last 40 years who has no judicial experience. In her past, she served as dean of Harvard School of Law for five years and also taught at the University of Chicago, where President Obama was also a professor.
On Tuesday, the second day of questioning, Kagan acknowledged her political view as being "generally progressive."
Besides raising concern about judicial activism, Land also highlighted her "apparent lack of respect for unborn children." He noted a memo Kagan co-authored with then-President Bill Clinton, whom she served as a legal adviser under, in which she urged Clinton to support a Senate strategy that would move forward what Land calls a "phony ban" on partial-birth abortion.
Land said Kagan was "instrumental" in delaying enactment of a ban on partial-birth abortion for several years.
He also addressed the controversial and much talked about incident when Kagan, as dean of the Harvard Law School, banned military recruiters from campus in opposition to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The rule bans gay and lesbian soldiers from serving openly while also barring the military from asking about military personnel's sexual orientation.
Kagan also joined 39 law school professors in unsuccessfully calling the Supreme Court to reject the Solomon Amendment, which denies federal funds to schools that bar military recruiters.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate hearing committee, scolded Kagan during the hearing for her treatment of the military during her time as dean.
"You were taking steps to treat them in a second-class way and not give them the same equal access because you deeply opposed their policy" on gays, Sessions said.
Kagan stood her ground and said military recruiters had access to Harvard students and she was trying to uphold the school's anti-discrimination policy.
Despite Republican opposition, Kagan's nomination is highly expected to proceed to the full Senate because of the Democrat majority on the hearing committee. A final vote on her nomination is expected late July.
