BREAKING: Obama Nominates Kagan For SCOTUS

[JoltinJoe]

It could have been worse, I suppose. All else equal, I would have preferred someone with judicial experience. Arguing a handful of cases as Solicitor General and running Harvard Law School for a few years don't amount to the experience I'm looking for.

At least she's not a community organizer.

These are my sentiments exactly. Plus, because she's the current Solicitor General, she is going to have recuse herself in many important cases which will come before the court during her first two or three years -- in almost every case in which the government has appeared and taken a position through the Office of the Solicitor General. There might be a number of cases, too many perhaps, affirming the opinion below based on a 4-4 split of the court, with Kagan abstaining.

BTW, isn't the Dean of Harvard Law by definition a community organizer?

[Ivytalk]

It could have been worse, I suppose. All else equal, I would have preferred someone with judicial experience. Arguing a handful of cases as Solicitor General and running Harvard Law School for a few years don't amount to the experience I'm looking for.

At least she's not a community organizer.

These are my sentiments exactly. Plus, because she's the current Solicitor General, she is going to have recuse herself in many important cases which will come before the court during her first two or three years -- in almost every case in which the government has appeared and taken a position through the Office of the Solicitor General. There might be a number of cases, too many perhaps, affirming the opinion below based on a 4-4 split of the court, with Kagan abstaining.

BTW, isn't the Dean of Harvard Law by definition a community organizer?

Almost, JoltinJoe. The current dean, Martha Minow (who succeeded Kagan), also clerked for Thurgood Marshall and was nominated by BHO to serve on the board of Legal Services Corp. Her resume reflects a wide variety of other garden-variety liberal legal creds. I'm keeping my wallet zipped for yet another year.

[Biff]

She's hot. I'm guessing that she's a strong proponent for gay rights?

I thought for sure she was a man. It wasn't until I turned the sound on the TV hearing her name to find out otherwise.

Not very knowledgable in this area, but the fact that she is ugly at least gives me some hope that she has never gotten anything in life easy.

[Skjellyfetti]

Are there any attractive Supreme Court Justices... there haven't been many females and they're all ugly. Not sure why her appearance is that much of a surprise.

[BDKJMU]

I've got no problem with the selection - she was clearly one of the more moderate of the bunch (I wouldn't had like it if he went with Wood as the pick). And, she's plenty bright enough. Yeah, she's nothing to look at, which makes the ban on live video of the SC a good thing, but all in all, I think she's a good pick.

It'll be interesting if there's any resistance to this pick, not from the right, which will probably make the requisite objections and questions, but really from the left. Many saw Stevens as the ultra-liberal on the bench (not that he was, but he was perceived that way) and some on the far left may think Kagan is far too moderate to replace Stevens (in essence letting the Court drift to the right). It'll be interesting how that goes.

Agreed.

Like his selection of Sotamayor, Obama has again pushed the Court to the right.

She has zero experience as a judge. Its been 40 years since their was a nominee with zero judicial experience. At least Rehnquist had significant litigation experience, which Kagan doesn't have. She argued what, a whopping 6 cases before SCOTUS as Solicitor Gen?

So no judicial experience. No significant trial experience. What, a doz law articles and a couple of book reviews? What exactly qualifies her to be a Supreme Ct justice? Would you want your head coach to be some who has no coaching experience? The Supreme Ct shouldn't be for on the job training.

[BDKJMU]

Obama said he wanted a Supreme Ct that looks like America. Well, lets see, the majority of the country is Protestant. Assuming Kagan is confirmed, the number of protestant Suprememe Ct judges will = Zero for the 1st time ever. Stevens was the last protestant on the Ct. Also the # of judges not a product of Harvard or Yale will now = Zero. (Stevens was Univ of Chicago & Northwestern).

Some diversity there.

[dbackjon]

Obama said he wanted a Supreme Ct that looks like America. Well, lets see, the majority of the country is Protestant. Assuming Kagan is confirmed, the number of protestant Suprememe Ct judges will = Zero for the 1st time ever. Stevens was the last protestant on the Ct. Also the # of judges not a product of Harvard or Yale will now = Zero. (Stevens was Univ of Chicago & Northwestern).

Some diversity there.

The Catholic/Jewish conspiracy!!




(Note, we do need more justices not from Harvard or Yale)