May 10, 2010

Statement of Doug Kendall, President, Constitutional Accountability Center, on the Nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States

Constitutional Accountability Center congratulates President Barack Obama on his nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. 

President Obama has chosen an able and accomplished nominee who is widely respected across the political spectrum.  Solicitor General Kagan, the former Dean of Harvard Law School, is a scholar and legal advocate who has served admirably as the lead lawyer for the Obama Administration before the United States Supreme Court.  The first woman to hold each of those positions, Kagan is a leader and a pathbreaker.   

In 2007, in the Evening Lecture she delivered at West Point, then-Dean Kagan spoke to the cadets about the Constitution and the rule of law.   Kagan explained that in a bold break from all prior world and military history, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution requires military officers and every other government official to swear loyalty not to a General or a President, but to the Constitution.   Kagan called fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law “the foundation stone of our society,” and she gave powerful examples of what fidelity to the Constitution and the law entails.

We look forward to General Kagan’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Her confirmation process should appropriately focus in large part on the activism of the Roberts Court.  As President Obama himself has powerfully explained, the conservative Justices on the Roberts Court have ignored or twisted laws, precedent, and the meaning of the Constitution in order to favor powerful special interests and unfairly disadvantage ordinary Americans.  With many critical decisions still to come down (some of these in cases argued by General Kagan), we expect General Kagan’s confirmation hearing to highlight the conservative judicial activism of the Roberts Court, and to underscore the need for more Justices who are faithful to the law and to the Constitution.

Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) is a think tank, law firm, and action center dedicated to the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history, www.theusconstitution.org.   CAC does not endorse or oppose federal judicial nominees until after the nominee’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is completed.