Kagan Confirmed for Supreme Court

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us-supreme-courtA year after Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor became the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court, the Senate confirmed Manhattanite Elena Kagan as the 112th justice and fourth woman on the country’s high court.

The vote was 63-37 for President Barack Obama’s nominee to succeed retired Justice John Paul Stevens.

Five Republicans joined all but one Democrat and the Senate’s two independents to support Kagan, who was born and raised on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In a rarely practiced ritual reserved for the most historic votes, senators sat at their desks and stood to cast their votes with “ayes” and “nays.”

Kagan isn’t expected to alter the ideological balance of the court, where Stevens was considered a leader of the liberals.

But the two parties clashed over her nomination. Republicans argued that Kagan was a political liberal who would be unable to be impartial. Democrats defended her as a highly qualified legal scholar.

She is the first Supreme Court nominee in nearly 40 years with no experience as a judge, and her swearing-in will mark the first time in history that three women will serve on the nine-member court together.

Her lack of judicial experience was the stated reason for one fence-sitting Republican, Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, to announce his opposition to her confirmation Thursday, just hours before the vote.

Though calling her “brilliant,” Brown – who had been seen as a potential GOP supporter – said she was missing the necessary background to serve as a justice.

“The best umpires, to use the popular analogy, must not only call balls and strikes, but also have spent enough time on the playing field to know the strike zone,” Brown said.


12 COMMENTS

  1. To Comments #1. & #3. from “Catskill all year resident” and “AA”:

    A Groisser Yasher Koach for your really great humor!

  2. Scalia got many more votes because back then it wasn’t as politicized. It is tragic that the Republicans have decided to oppose everything unanimously, even things they really approve of. America deserves better.

  3. In all seriousness though, Comment #4 from “Brian” is what we all need to say.

    Yes, this is a very sad day in the history of Klall Yisroel, and this is a very sad day in the history of America.

    When President Obama first introduced Miss. Elena Kagan as a nominee, in a detailed article, the Yated Neeman made a brilliant observation. The observation was that in her career, she was never a judge. Therefore, not much was known about her legal opinions or what would be her methods of judging. The implication of this then was that Miss. Kagan was like a new fresh “clean slate,” who would thus be easily approved for the exalted position.

    The truth though, is more complicated. While she never served as an actual judge, her extensive work was still right in the legal field. In fact, what was probably her biggest previous accomplishment was that, for a number of years, she was the dean of one of the very top law schools: the school of law at the prestigious world renown Harvard University! Being the director of such a major educational institution, she obviously made decisions in setting policies and managing the school. Furthermore, when she was dean and throughout her career, she wrote professional articles and delivered speeches.

    So in the administrative actions, written comments, and spoken remarks that she made, there are numerous clues as to what are her ideas and opinions. Her administrative actions and written and spoken remarks strongly indicate that she has a political/moral philosophy that is at the far left side of the spectrum. For example:

    She is fanatically for the most extreme Toeiva “rights.”

    She is rabidly for the most extreme abortion “rights.”

    She believes that when judging cases, the courts should take into consideration what are the laws of other FOREIGN COUNTRIES on that issue.

    She believes that the government should greatly limit people’s freedom of speech and even their freedom of religion!

  4. (continuation of previous comment)

    That Miss. Kagan is a fellow Jewish woman, the situation is that much more extremely sad in that she has, very unfortunately, adopted positions that are so totally the exact opposite of our Torah HaK’dosha.

    Because of these problems, when the Senate held the confirmation hearings on her nomination, many senators were severely skeptical about her. Thus, several senators attempted to outright confront her about her radical views. However, like a super expert politician, she did an excellent job of avoiding giving direct answers to the questions and thus did a good job of allowing people to think that she is OK. In the end though, in contrast to most judicial confirmation votes, which are usually close to unanimous, Miss. Kagan had a significant 35 votes opposing her.

  5. No judicial experience – just Liberal, Left-Wing ideology, and the best part – she doesn’t leave in four years – she’s appointed for life!
    President Obama – the gift that keeps on giving!
    Hashem Yishmor!

  6. “Scalia got many more votes because back then it wasn’t as politicized. It is tragic that the Republicans have decided to oppose everything unanimously, even things they really approve of. America deserves better.”

    May I remind you Mr. Oberstein, that the party who first politicized Supreme Court nominations was the Democrats, in 1987 during the hearings to confirm Robert Bork.

    He was an experienced and qualified nominee, unlike this inexperienced ideologue, who opposes much of what Orthodox Jews hold dear. She is not a source of Nachas to her people and if her past is any indication, her rulings will unfortunately result in a great deal of Chillul Hashem.

    America deserves better and the Jewish people deserve better!

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