GOP put Icon on trial during hearings
Monday the conformation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan began. But if you listened to the Republican Senators who questioned her, it was Thurgood Marshall who was on trial.
The former Supreme Court judge’s name was mentioned 35 times as they questioned Kagan, who clerked for Marshall in the 1980s.
“Kagan wrote a tribute to Justice Marshall in which she said in his view it was the role of the courts and interpreting the Constitution to protect the people who went unprotected by every other organ of government,” Senator Jon Kyl stated. “The court existed primarily to fulfill this mission. And later, when she was working in the Clinton administration, she encouraged a colleague working on a speech about Justice Marshall to emphasize his unshakable determination to protect the underdog.”
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions took it even further.
“She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva and Justice Marshall, each a well-known liberal activist judge,” Sessions said.
Marshall was not only the first black judge to sit on the Supreme Court, but he was the winning lawyer in the Brown v. Board of Education case which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and outlawed segregation. So it doesn’t make too much sense why the GOP would be attacking the judicial Icon through Kagan’s confirmation.
One of Marshall’s statements the senators attacked was “you do what you think is right and let the law catch up.” In their eyes that somehow is tantamount to revolution. But I hope it is a statement Kagan takes to hear if she is confirmed.
Michael Kinney
Michael Kinney
Michael Kinney
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June 29th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Whether Democrat or Republican, “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up,” does not, with all due respect, define the job of a Judge.
Any catching up to be done should be by our elected leaders, whether in the Executive or Legislative branch of government. I understand elections have consequences, but the appointment of Judges with that kind of philosophy isn’t a gimme. If Roberts or Alito said something like that, you, I believe, would be having a fit.
June 29th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Mr. McDanel, our history has been full of judges who have led the way and let the law catch up. It was the Warren court that outlawed segregation who overturned an existing law in order to do it. If they had just allowed the law to stand, many things would be different today. As far as Roberts and Alito, while they may not have stated it, they have allowed their own personal views or political beliefs to have sway over their decisions.
June 30th, 2010 at 7:25 am
Michael..You confuse the concept of an appellate court “overturning” an existing law for appropriate reason, with “legislating from the bench and letting the law catch up”. There is a significant difference, often misunderstood by laypersons.
As I predicted, you are unhappy when the legislating is being done by conservative judges. You should note that I didn’t say I approved if it is done or said by Roberts or Alito. I don’t. But neither you nor I can have it only our way.
July 1st, 2010 at 1:14 pm
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