Thread: Moderate Elena Kagan is the Frontrunner for Supreme Court Nod

Elena Kagan Emerging As Supreme Court Front-Runner

Elena Kagan, President Obama's solicitor general, is rapidly emerging as a frontrunner to replace retiring Chief Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan is widely praised as an accomplished and intelligent attorney, but is far more conservative than Stevens and could shift the political dynamic of the high court.

Conservatives are responding favorably to the potential of a Justice Elena Kagan while liberals worry that, by choosing her, the administration would miss the opportunity to elevate a genuine progressive.

John Manning, a conservative professor at Harvard Law School, where Kagan served as dean, told HuffPost that he would firmly support a Kagan nomination. Professor Charles Fried, a Reagan administration solicitor general, also said that he'd support a Kagan pick.
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Kagan, who knew Obama as a Harvard student and also went to Chicago after graduating, had a similar approach at Harvard, hiring a number of conservative professors.

Obama's approach to this nomination will be interesting, as he has to achieve a balance between picking a moderate - something which would fair pretty well politically - and maintaining the court's balance between both ideological spectrums. Stevens is one of the most liberal members of the court and has an ability to get other justices in line for tough votes; Kagan's selection might maintain the balance but to a lesser extent.

It's nice to proceed with the romantic notion that justices should be selected on account of their qualifications rather than their ideology, but we can't ignore the likelihood of his successor implanting staunch conservatives to shift the court to the right. I can't fathom what impact a Palin or Huckabee nomination would do to the Supreme Court's makeup.

Since Stevens is easily the most liberal member of the Court, it seems to me Obama should get pretty much a free pass to nominate whatever sort of justice he likes--there's no way even the most liberal justice could change the balance of the SCOTUS. Unfortunately, this is an election year, which makes his choice difficult.

Originally Posted by Rassales

Since Stevens is easily the most liberal member of the Court, it seems to me Obama should get pretty much a free pass to nominate whatever sort of justice he likes--there's no way even the most liberal justice could change the balance of the SCOTUS. Unfortunately, this is an election year, which makes his choice difficult.

I do agree, but I would like to add that the reflexive outrage that has been the de rigueur of the right wing strategy of late may play a part in it.

The following is my opinion only.

I think whomever he nominates will be a moderate, as that is the best hope he has of a speedy confirmation. If he wants a speedy nomination process, all he has to do is nominate a complete moron who is left of Cindy Sheehan and when the outrage hits he chooses a moderate, and the second choice gets rushed through as he or she looks fantastic by comparison, kind of like how Roberts got onto the USSC.

Obama will definitely nominate a moderate. He is one himself. His policies have all be in that mode so far. The say no to everything Republicans will sit on their hands anyway.

Originally Posted by Chase

Elena Kagan Emerging As Supreme Court Front-Runner

Obama's approach to this nomination will be interesting, as he has to achieve a balance between picking a moderate - something which would fair pretty well politically - and maintaining the court's balance between both ideological spectrums. Stevens is one of the most liberal members of the court and has an ability to get other justices in line for tough votes; Kagan's selection might maintain the balance but to a lesser extent.

It's nice to proceed with the romantic notion that justices should be selected on account of their qualifications rather than their ideology, but we can't ignore the likelihood of his successor implanting staunch conservatives to shift the court to the right. I can't fathom what impact a Palin or Huckabee nomination would do to the Supreme Court's makeup.

Well...it's all well and good for various people to voice support for one possible nominee or another, but to state that Kagan is the 'frontrunner' is a bit wishful thinking to my mind. The article doesn't reference statement from anybody in the Obama Administration, so we don't really know, yet, who the frontrunner is, do we?

That being said, I'll weigh in with my two cents. I think Kagan would be a good choice. Her nomination would eliminate the messy, protracted fight in Congress that could result from a more ideological selection. President Obama needs to make this selection and affirmation process as smooth and quick as possible so that he can get on with the other items on his agenda. He has a lot of stuff he wants to do before his Democratic majority is destroyed.

I don't think a moderate really effects the balance that much. She's still going to lean left... and when it comes down to it, the current crop of liberals is not nearly as activist as the conservative wing. The "liberal activist" court disappeared a couple decades ago.

We're not going to see any shift in balance until either Kennedy or one of the far-righters is replaced. And that is unlikely to happen while Obama is present.

It's too bad Republicans now have to promise more radical-right judges as a litmus test in elections. Day O'Connor and Stevens were both Republican picks from the days before!
But fearing another Thomas... I cannot possibly vote a Republican for president for decades (I kind of fear that Thomas and Scalia are immortal).

Originally Posted by JavaBlack

I don't think a moderate really effects the balance that much. She's still going to lean left... and when it comes down to it, the current crop of liberals is not nearly as activist as the conservative wing. The "liberal activist" court disappeared a couple decades ago.

We're not going to see any shift in balance until either Kennedy or one of the far-righters is replaced. And that is unlikely to happen while Obama is present.

It's too bad Republicans now have to promise more radical-right judges as a litmus test in elections. Day O'Connor and Stevens were both Republican picks from the days before!
But fearing another Thomas... I cannot possibly vote a Republican for president for decades (I kind of fear that Thomas and Scalia are immortal).

The US does not need a shift right in the court. The US is already out of step with the world.