Why Kagan should be filibustered
Senators should filibuster Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Here’s why.
It’s not because of her mostly empty answers to the mostly easy questions posed by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during this week’s hearings. It’s not even because she hinted at an extremely expansive view of Congress’s ability to put mandates on our everyday lives when Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) asked her whether it would be constitutional for legislators to require Americans to eat three vegetables and three fruits a day, and she demurred.
No, the reason Senators should filibuster Kagan is Sonia Sotomayor.
The Senate confirmed Sotomayor last year as President Obama’s first appointment to the Supreme Court. Like Kagan, and like pretty much every nominee to the high court since Robert Bork was demonized by Ted Kennedy and blocked by Senate Democrats, Sotomayor cruised to confirmation by refusing to tip her hand as to how she would rule on certain issues.
But already we can see that the confirmation process as it’s been conducted the past quarter-century has yielded more than evasiveness. As Jonah Goldberg writes at Townhall.com, in the McDonald vs. Chicago gun-rights case that the Supreme Court ruled on this week,
[Sotomayor] concurred with Justice Stephen Breyer’s dissent, which held that there is no fundamental right to bear arms in the U.S. Constitution. “I can find nothing in the Second Amendment’s text, history or underlying rationale that could warrant characterizing it as ‘fundamental’ insofar as it seeks to protect the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense purposes,” Breyer wrote for the minority.
But when Sotomayor was before the Senate Judiciary Committee one year ago for her own confirmation hearings, she gave a very different impression of how she saw the issue. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy asked her, “Is it safe to say that you accept the Supreme Court’s decision as establishing that the Second Amendment right is an individual right?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
Both Sotomayor and Leahy festooned their colloquies with plenty of lawyerly escape hatches. That’s why Leahy asked the questions the way he did, and that’s why Sotomayor answered them the way she did. It’s also why he spun her answers into more than they were: “I do not see how any fair observer could regard (Sotomayor’s) testimony as hostile to the Second Amendment personal right to bear arms, a right she has embraced and recognizes.” He made it sound as though she was open to an expansive reading of the Second Amendment when everyone knew she wasn’t. (As a judge, she was hardly a hero of the NRA.)
Whether you are a liberal or a conservative or something in between, I’d hope you could agree with me that a confirmation process in which nominees say so little of substance, and yet manage to be misleading nonetheless, is a sham. Enough is enough.
If the Senate is going to insist on a process that’s more than a formality, the process ought to mean something. Either that, or we should go back to the pre-Bork era.
(And, lest someone accuses me of partisanship: I haven’t researched the record of every confirmation hearing since Bork and compared the nominees’ comments to their record on the bench. But I will stipulate that Sotomayor is probably not the first justice to issue a ruling at odds with her statements as a nominee, and that this probably isn’t a problem confined to one end of the ideological spectrum.)
So, why should Kagan now pay for the sins of Sotomayor and others?
Because she probably won’t be the last person nominated to the court by Barack Obama, and if the Senate is going to send a message about the way nominees are expected to perform at confirmation hearings, it has to be sent to a president who will be in a position to do something about it.
I suppose the message could get through to a future president, and I don’t really care whether that president might be a Republican or a Democrat. But I think it would be communicated most clearly right now, and Obama’s the president right now.
This is a chance to end the charade. Either senators do it now, or they stop grumbling about the farce that they insist on carrying out.
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341 comments Add your comment
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 30th, 2010
7:00 pm
The real solution to the Lady KaGa problem is “term limits,” a Constitutional amendment setting a ten-year term for every Federal judge, with no grandfather provision.
"Information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment" - BHO, May 1, 2010
June 30th, 2010
7:05 pm
Bravo Ragnar at 7pm !!!
Enormous H
June 30th, 2010
7:06 pm
WOW! What a pathetic loser! Over ONE HUNDRED idiotic posts by this one cretin alone! In just six and half hours. Talk about no friggin life! And talk about talking about nothing.
WOW, LA. I stand in awe of your unrivaled ability to be an industrial strength imbecile.
saywhat?
June 30th, 2010
7:07 pm
Kyle, why do you still tolerate the trashing of your blog? You have the same single poster, different day, different name, fill up the comments section, post after post after post with worthless, sometimes abusive , sometimes hateful drivel. I would like to assume that maybe you just ignore it as you scroll by, like I usually do.
Unfortunately, I do think that it reflects poorly on you, and unfairly at that. But since this fool is always in general agreement with your initial post before she starts off on her endless rantings, and attacks any who disagree with you, your silence over the matter gives the appearance of at least tacit approval, to the abusive poster if to nobody else. I understand you have more to do than monitor your blog 24/7and baby sit the immature, but is there nothing you can do to curtail this abuse? Are you not embarrassed that this noxious spew comprises the largest portion of your blog? I know I have raised this concern with you once or twice in the past, and I am disappointed that the issue continues. It would surprise me greatly if I were the only one to feel this way.
"Information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment" - BHO, May 1, 2010
June 30th, 2010
7:08 pm
#1 – Constitutional Amendment requiring Term Limits for all members of Congress
#2 – Constitutional Amendment requiring a Balanced Federal Budget every year, no excuses.
#3 – Repeal the 16th Amendment (Income Tax) and replace it with a Flat Tax or Fair Tax, a National Lottery and massive consumption taxes on alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
#4 – Congress must repeal The War Powers Act. This law allows the POTUS to start wars without an official declaration by Congress. Congress granted it and they can take it back. Get it done.
#5 – Seal the borders immediately. Once they’re closed we can discuss how to go forward with the illegal population already here.
Start There — November 2, 2010 is only 125 days away.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:11 pm
Enormous H
I saw you on 11 Alive news last night for attempting to rape that Yak at the Atlanta Zoo. You must be really “hard up” for a mate. You should try E Harmony or Match instead of trying to fornicate with farm animals.
“I stand in awe of your unrivaled ability to be an industrial strength imbecile.”
Well I stand in awe of your chronic rape attempts on farm animals.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:13 pm
saywhat?
Interesting, I just moseyed over to Bookman’s blog and noticed that you called someone a “nut sack.”
"Information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment" - BHO, May 1, 2010
June 30th, 2010
7:14 pm
I just posted a legitimate political platform for any candidate to win with.
Where is the Progressive platform for 2010?
Is it just “Blame Bush”?
How about Conservatives go with “Blame Obama”?
Both suck!
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 30th, 2010
7:16 pm
Dear Info @ 7:08, not bad. I fear your #2 would become the “annual higher taxes” mandate; a better focus would restrict increases in spending. But yours is better than what we have now. As to #5, I think we need a 2000′ buffer zone, owned by the government; use it for random bombing practice.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 30th, 2010
7:24 pm
Opening of the best argument on the topic:
KAGAN HEARINGS SURPASS WORLD CUP FOR MOST BORING TV EVENT
by Ann Coulter
June 30, 2010
The two main points being made by Democrats in support of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court merely serve to remind us that Democrats are inveterate liars.
First, it has been repeatedly observed how wonderful it is that Ms. Kagan is “someone who’s an intellectual heavyweight who’s going to give Roberts a run for the money” — as Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., put it.
Whew! Good thing the Democrats got that Hispanic nominee out of the way, so they could appoint somebody with intellectual heft! Hey! What happened to the “wise Latina”? At least now you know what liberals really think of you, Sonia.
Second, liberals are raving about Kagan’s “skill at building a consensus … reaching out and building coalitions” — as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said last week.
It’s as if they’re talking about a governing majority in the Senate. Next thing you know, liberals will be complaining about a “do nothing” Supreme Court.
On MSNBC’s “Hardball” back in May, Sen. Klobuchar said: “We want to get some things done on this court.”
Get some things done? Amy Klobuchar is not considered a lunatic, but this was a crazy, giveaway moment. (Durbin is not considered a lunatic, just a hack.)
No More Progressives!
June 30th, 2010
7:26 pm
Well, HDB, you flunked. Again.
OK: 1- Sentencing guidelines: Same crime…black people aree sentenced LONGER
2. Employment – Black unemployment rate DOUBLE the rate of the preponderance of Americans
3. Republican Representation of Black people – NO Black Republicans since JC Watts; only 105 delegates to the past GOP Convention……
Sentencing guidelines – I agree. Same crime, same time.
Employment – this is a large Duh. The reasons differ, but you act like it’s my fault.
Republican Representation of Black people – is thuroughly different from Black Republican representation of Black people. Again, you act like this is my fault.
I’m highly aware of all three. You stated unequivocally that I was not aware of these issues, and I am. Have been.
Try again.
PS: There’s only one Black senator (Roland Burris) out of 99. Is this my fault too?
Enormous H
June 30th, 2010
7:27 pm
It’s OK, LA. Most people know you’ve been repeatedly and permanently banned from both JB’s and CT’s for being the scummy on-line moron you are. Soon, KW will tire of your stupidity and then you’ll be reduced to Barr’s blog!
If you had any pride as a man at all you would just disappear. But as others have noted, you don’t and you won’t.
Over and out, lout.
Roger Rabbit
June 30th, 2010
7:30 pm
Yep, WOW is LA/DavidAF!
How long before he says “Hypocrite much?”
Or “Read much?” or “Contradict much?” or “Spell much”?
Kyle, can you send him on a permanent vacation again?
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 30th, 2010
7:35 pm
After seeing the complaints against WOW, I started reading. I think I want to friend him/her. Pretty good sense of humor.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:39 pm
Enormous H
What is Kyle going to ban me for? You left wingers cry and whine when people hit back at you yet you’re here name calling etc..
Have fun on your delivery run, H!
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:40 pm
“Kyle, can you send him on a permanent vacation again?”
For what? The only thing I’ve done is combat left wing drivel from crybabies. If Kyle was going to ban someone maybe he should ban the gals who were on here earlier calling him stupid, idiot etc….
snoqualmiefalls
June 30th, 2010
7:41 pm
Asking Ms. Kagen what she does on XMas day by the Senator from So. Carolina show me that So. Carolina has no Jews, otherwise he would now the answer. Just another Southern, Christian, conservative Senator attempting to point out that Kagan is not a Christian. That’s real smart Senator, another example of Lincoln’s folly of keeping this country together.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:41 pm
“How long before he says “Hypocrite much?””
So, am I the only one on Earth to have written that? Gee Rabit, if that’s the case then I guess you’re the only gal on Earth who drives a Pinto.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:43 pm
Ragnar Danneskjöld
These left wingers all come on here, name call and then run away screaming and begging the blog moderator to ban me. They did the same thing on Bookman and Tuckers blog. If they had half a brain, which none of them do, they’d go back and actually read the numerous insults that were thrown my way.
Typical left wingers. Same old same old.
WOW
June 30th, 2010
7:45 pm
“Asking Ms. Kagen what she does on XMas day by the Senator from So. Carolina show me that So. Carolina has no Jews, otherwise he would now the answer.”
he would “now” the answer? How does one “now” the answer?
“ust another Southern, Christian,”
Ah, the truth comes out. Another whiny little left winger comes on and blames Christians.
Enormous Buffoon
June 30th, 2010
7:49 pm
“being the scummy on-line moron you are. Soon, KW will tire of your stupidity and then you’ll be reduced to Barr’s blog! ”
So, Enormous H wants WOW banned for name calling yet he calls WOW a moron AND stupid.
Classic.
Enormous H
June 30th, 2010
7:57 pm
I’ll drive by later to see what the little victimized, perpetually banned LA brat cries about next.
Enormous Buffoon
June 30th, 2010
8:15 pm
Enormous H steals blog handles.
Enormous Buffoon
June 30th, 2010
8:15 pm
“I’ll drive by later to see what the little victimized, perpetually banned LA brat cries about next.”
Who is LA?
hryder
June 30th, 2010
9:05 pm
Get off the refuted arguement that the Supreme Court gave Bush the election over Gore. Gore lost because he obtained fewer votes from the Florida results as all unbiased counts, recounts, audits, et.al., established. Those of you who remain paranoid regarding the results are attempting to tell the same LIE, ad nauseum, that such will be accepted as true. Not with this event, so shut up and dream of another lie that is so untrue that it is inane.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
June 30th, 2010
9:21 pm
Dear Real WOW @ 7:43, I banned myself from Bookman – don’t respect him much. I enjoy Cynthia’s blog
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
6:24 am
Barack Obama revealed his goal for the Supreme Court when he complained on Chicago radio station WBEZ-FM in 2001 that the Earl Warren Court wasn’t “radical” enough because “it didn’t break free from the essential constraints placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution” in order to allow “redistribution of wealth.” Now that Obama is president, he has the power to nominate Supreme Court justices who will “break free” from the Constitution and join him in “fundamentally transforming” America.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=172725
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
6:38 am
Kagan Declines To Say Gov’t Has No Power to Tell Americans What To Eat
http://patriotupdate.com/stories/read/4146/Kagan-Declines-To-Say-Govt-Has-No-Power-to-Tell-Americans-What-To-Eat
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
6:46 am
Kagan hearings surpass World Cup for most boring TV event
The two main points being made by Democrats in support of Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court merely serve to remind us that Democrats are inveterate liars.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=173149
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
6:51 am
Wow, these Kagan hearings are boring as hell. As expected, Barack’s girl, Elena, is dancing and dodging her way out of substantially answering any question. Heck, this kabuki theater has already gotten to the point where Kagan said with a straight face that she didn’t know what the term “legal progressive” means.
http://content.eaglepub.com/?ldKg.cWuZe-SJEBfDOgS2aMlsuhquSgRl
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
7:08 am
“Did you write that memo?” Hatch asked.
“Senator, with respect,” Kagan began, “I don’t think that that’s what happened — ”
“Did you write that memo?”
“I’m sorry — the memo which is?”
“The memo that caused them to go back to the language of ‘medically necessary,’ which was the big issue to begin with — ”
“Yes, well, I’ve seen the document — ”
“But did you write it?”
“The document is certainly in my handwriting.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/30/kagan-on-acog-memo-did-i-do-that/
No More Progressives!
July 1st, 2010
7:14 am
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents from Hunter College High School regarding a White House effort to deny New York Times education reporter Sharon Otterman access to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s brother Irving…………..
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/06/30/did-the-white-house-interfere-with-nyt-research-of-kagan/
DEWSTARPATH
July 1st, 2010
7:21 am
WOW
June 30th, 2010
3:43 pm
“Is WOW really LA/DavidAxelfraud in disguise? ”
“Hey Dewstarpath!”
WRONG, LobLAw. I am not – repeat NOT Roger Rabbit – But
as I told you many times, all of the posters on this forum
are on to you.
DEWSTARPATH
July 1st, 2010
7:50 am
WOW (aka Loblaw aka LA aka Axelfraud et. al. ):
– Told you. Just read the comments in this forum by
Enormous H and Roger Rabbit. I wasn’t even on the
computer yesterday afternoon.
WOW = World Of Warcraft (LA’s favorite game, apparently).
DEWSTARPATH
July 1st, 2010
7:54 am
- And as far as your anti-union rants: that’s more evidence
of your own belief in Mussolini’s fascism than anything
President Obama has ever done.
WOW = Why Oh Why (did I ever use Dewstarpath’s handle
for my own pedantic rants ?)
WOW
July 1st, 2010
9:19 am
DEWSTARPATH
Dude, seriously, calm down.
No More Progressives!
July 2nd, 2010
8:14 am
Wednesday’s evening news shows and Thursday’s morning programs continued to minimize or leave out important moments of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings. ABC’s Good Morning America, for instance, has offered only 67 seconds of coverage over three days. Today and The Early Show each provided a single ten second news brief on Thursday.
http://www.newsbusters.org/#ixzz0sWhi3B9S
No More Progressives!
July 2nd, 2010
8:34 am
Kagan was grilled today by Senator Graham on the Solomon Amendment. She said that in banning the military from involvement in the Office of Career Services, she was not making a political statement at all.
The record begs to differ. Here is Kagans actual wording in objecting to the militarys use of OCS (after being overruled by the Harvard administration in the aftermath of the Supreme Court upholding the Solomon Amendment): “I believe the military’s discriminatory employment policy is deeply wrong – both unwise and unjust. And this wrong tears at the fabric of our own community by denying an opportunity to some of our students that other of our students have. Does that sound political to you?”
http://www.visiontoamerica.org/story/kagans-lying-her-pearls-off-.html?utm_source=Vision+to+America+Announcements&utm_campaign=cdabda36eb-Vision_to_America_Announcements_7_1_2010&utm_medium=email
Intown
July 7th, 2010
11:47 am
Yes, Kyle. It’s easy to take a stand on principle when it’s the opposite side of the aisle that will take a hit. Let’s filibuster the next uber-conservative judicial activist judge that the next Repub president nominates instead. Leave Obama alone and let him continue to replace the aging left-of-center justices in the minority on the Court before his first term expires.
mark
July 7th, 2010
10:02 pm
Funny Republicans never had a problem with the idiot Bush’s anti abortion choices for the court, or the highly qualified Myers who received a law degree from ITT.
No More Progressives!
July 8th, 2010
7:46 am
mark
July 7th, 2010
10:02 pm
If Mark is alone in the forest whining, can anyone hear him???