A Much-Needed Progressive Voice on the Court

Statement on Nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court

SOURCE: AP/Susan Walsh

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden walk with Solicitor General and Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

By John Podesta | May 10, 2010

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As a friend and colleague of Elena Kagan for more than 20 years, I applaud her nomination to the Supreme Court. General Kagan is a first-rate intellect, a passionate legal scholar, and a dedicated public servant—and she is both well prepared and well suited to serve on the nation’s highest Court.

As my colleague in the White House, Elena Kagan worked tirelessly to expand opportunity for all Americans willing to work hard and play by the rules. She understands that the law imposes obligations on all Americans, and she will have no patience for well-heeled interest groups who believe that their wealth and influence should grant them immunity from the law.

In this sense, Kagan is a welcome contrast to the narrow, conservative voices that dominate today’s Supreme Court. General Kagan forged a bipartisan consensus in favor of regulations preventing tobacco companies from marketing their products to children. Despite this consensus, a conservative 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court adopted an implausible reading of federal law to declare such regulations invalid in 2000. Unlike these conservative justices, Kagan understands that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what a powerful industry says it should be.

In other words, General Kagan will be a much-needed progressive voice on a Court dominated by conservatives who believe in one set of laws for the powerful, and another set of laws for ordinary Americans. She will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice.

John D. Podesta is President and CEO of the Center for American Progress.

For more on the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States, please follow the following links:

Center for American Progress

• A Qualified and Faithful Legal Mind
• Experience Comes from More than a Judge’s Robe
• A Victory for Equal Justice
• A Much-Needed Progressive Voice on the Court

ThinkProgress

• Scarborough Repeats Debunked Claim That Kagan ‘Violated The Law’ While Dean Of Harvard Law
• McCain Attacks Kagan For Harvard’s ROTC Policy — Even Though She Had Nothing To Do With It
• When It Comes To Supreme Court Nominees And Elena Kagan, Cornyn Can’t Keep His Story Straight
• Ken Starr on right-wing attacks on Kagan: ‘I don’t think it serves the country well.’
• REPORT: Kagan’s Experience Involved Handling More Than One Thousand Cases
• Flashback: McConnell And DeMint Praised Harriet Miers’ ‘Wealth’ Of ‘Great Experience’
• It didn’t take long for Rush Limbaugh to start making sexist attacks against Elena Kagan.
• Inhofe becomes first Senator to declare his opposition to Kagan, hours after Obama announces her nomination.
• The Progressive Case For Elena Kagan
• Kyl on Kagan: ‘She doesn’t seem to be over the top.’
• After Calling Her ‘Very Respectable’ And ‘Impressive,’ Kristol Bashes Kagan As ‘Hostile To The Military’
• Far-Right Group AFA Demands To Know Kagan’s Sexuality, Since ‘No Lesbian Is Qualified’ To Sit On SCOTUS
• Barrasso Pledges To Make The Constitutionality Of Health Care A Major Issue In Kagan’s Confirmation Hearings

Wonk Room

• Like a Broken Record, Conservatives Repeat Scare Tactics About Foreign Law in US Courts
• No, Kagan Does Not Want To Ban Books
• Right-Wing Lawmakers Demand SCOTUS Nominee Kagan Flank To The Right Of Scalia
• Limbaugh Falsely Accuses Kagan of Wanting ‘To Have Somebody in Charge of Who Can Say What’
• Like Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Mullen, Kagan Believes Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Clashes With Military Values