Kagan: Obama’s Latest Civil Liberties Disaster

Once again, when Obama had a chance to take a strong stand in favor of the Constitution, he took a dive.

His nomination of somemone for the Supreme Court who shirked the most controversial moral and legal issues of the war on terror is appalling.

Glenn Greenwald has the best analysis I’ve seen on why Kagan is a bad pick.

I’m sure there will be far more good reasons to reject Kagan for the Supreme Court coming to the surface in the coming weeks.

One thought on “Kagan: Obama’s Latest Civil Liberties Disaster”

  1. The "civil liberties disaster" is Obama. Kagan is just another manifestation of its effects.

  2. I wish more people saw Obama's reasoning behind this pick. She's not an obvious choice in some ways — with little experience in the courtroom (either as a judge or an attorney) or as an academic writer (she's published remarkably little), she's rather unqualified compared to Obama's other potential picks. Furthermore, unless she comes out as gay soon (and the Obama team is on the record as trying to suppress rumors about her sexuality), she's not going to add that much diversity. There are already two women and two Jews, and everyone is Ivy League. But here's the deal:

    He wants a justice who, on one hand, is conventionally liberal on matters like abortion, gun control and campaign finance. He may not get that in someone like, say, Merrick Garland.

    On the other hand, he's worried that if he chooses as justice someone who's too civil libertarian (e.g. Diane Wood), she'll rule against his expansion of executive power.

    Elena Kagan is the perfect choice for him. In many ways socially liberal (as shown by her DADT display), but a chicken about civil liberties.

  3. There no longer exists a party for progressives or true conservatives – both parties have been fractured into ideologically-driven minorities competing against a unified bipartisan plutocracy. Kagan is their choice – the choice of the ruling party. Obama never represented progress – he just won American Presidential Idol.

  4. But of course. The chameleon revealed his true colors no later than January 22, 2009 (true colors that never were really hidden in the first place), so why any observant person would greet this latest move as a shock is beyond me. Who did you expect Obama would nominate to take Stevens' place: Judge Andrew Napolitano?

  6. We suck at war and intimidation… Come on 4yrs and 2 -3rd world Countries later. Bring the boys and girls home for the 4th….NOW

  7. U.S. government opposes Canadian's appeal on torture:
    "The Obama administration on Wednesday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the appeal of a Canadian man who wants to proceed with his lawsuit against top U.S. officials for sending him to Syria, where he says he was tortured.

    The case involved Maher Arar, a Syrian-born software engineer who was detained by U.S. officials in 2002 at a New York airport while on his way home to Canada. He then was sent to Syria because of suspected links to al Qaeda.

    Solicitor General Elena Kagan, whom President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court on Monday, did not take part in the case. The brief was signed by her deputy, Neal Katyal, as the acting solicitor general."
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100512/wl_canada_nm/…

    WE are above the law.We are the land of the free…

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