.........thin paper trail on Kagan for SCOTUS

[Mr. T]

How Does Kagan Feel About the Military?

May 11, 2010 - 6:16 PM | by: Shannon Bream

Given Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s relatively thin paper trail, the policy decisions she has made are getting extra attention. Chief among them is her decision as dean of Harvard Law School to ban military recruiters from the official campus career services office (OCS). Kagan acted because of her belief that the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy (DADT) was discriminatory and wrongly excluded gay students from specific employment opportunities. Kagan has called DADT a “moral injustice of the first order,” and in a 2005 letter to Harvard Law School faculty and students Kagan wrote that the policy “tears at the fabric of our own community by denying an opportunity to some of our students that other of our students have.”

 

In 1996, well before Kagan’s tenure at Harvard, Congress passed the Solomon Amendment. The measure essentially allowed the government to deny federal money to higher institutions that refused to allow military recruiters on campus. A group of law schools (FAIR) decided to band together in 2003 to fight the Solomon Amendment. Though Harvard was not a member of that association, Kagan did sign on to a brief in support of overturning the ban. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where FAIR lost in a unanimous decision – allowing the government to continue blocking funds to schools that ban military recruiters. Though Kagan allowed military recruiters onto the campus she expressed “regret” at doing so.

 

Conservatives and many military supporters worry about how Kagan will view the military and its policies if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court based on what happened at Harvard Law School. “This is a concern not only because of the disrespect it shows to the military during a time of war, but also it indicates this is an occasion where she may have let her ideological beliefs opposed to the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy cloud her legal reasoning,” says Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network. Tommy Sears of the Center for Military Readiness says he’s concerned because, “in every case we can see that’s she’s been involved with, she has taken a view opposing the military and its standards.”

 

Kagan supporters say she has always made clear that while she objects to DADT, she has great respect for the military and those who serve in it. Robert C. Clark, the man who preceded her as dean at Harvard Law School says it would be “very wrong” to portray Kagan as hostile to the military adding, “Quite the opposite is true.” David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, says Kagan’s actions at Harvard simply upheld the policy that was already in place when she took over as dean. Axelrod also notes that Kagan was “extremely supportive” of students who wanted to enlist in the military. Both sides are eager to see how members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will question Kagan on the issue.

Source

 

Will her confirmation hearings be dont ask dont tell?

 

Interesting read about Kagan here

Barts sister? Where is the segway?

[calfoxwc]

I predict she will not be confirmed.

 

What open baggage she has, is bad baggage.

 

And, Heck loves her, so obviously, she is awful.