Rosalind Helderman of The Washington Post today tells us of a letter written by 10 members of the Virginia General Assembly, all military veterans, to Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner, “expressing their apprehension” regarding President Obama’s selection of Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court justice.
The Assembly members (including Del. Thomas A. Greason (R-32)) take issue with Solicitor General Kagan’s amicus brief filed when she was Dean of Harvard Law regarding her opposition to military recruiters on Harvard’s campus. What the Assembly members fail to say in their letter to the Senators is that Ms. Kagan was against the recruiters’ presence primarily because the military’s stance on gay and lesbian servicemembers ran counter to Harvard’s non-discrimination policy. Simply put, if the military would treat all potential enlistees/officer candidates equally, regardless of sexual orientation, there would be no issue. The Atlantic further reveals that a Harvard student/soldier doesn’t doubt Kagan’s support of pursuing a military career; just the fact that the military discriminates against a certain sector of the population.(As a proud former military member myself, and a staunch supporter of the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, I have no problem with Ms. Kagan’s completely rational argument.)
The Assembly members also go on to assert that Ms. Kagan :
would be the only current member of the Supreme Court to come to the bench without prior judicial experience. As such, she has no body of rulings from which to form even the most basic conclusions as to her judicial philosophy.
Yet another misstep on the legislators’ parts – there have been many instances of justices with no prior judicial experience serving on the Supreme Court; former Chief Justice Willam Rehnquist, for one. The Los Angeles Times states:
Kagan is most often compared to William H. Rehnquist, who was a lawyer in the Justice Department when President Nixon selected him for the court in 1971. Rehnquist had never served as a judge but had spent years in private practice in Arizona. Like (Earl) Warren, he later became chief justice.
Yes, that’s right, former Chief Justice Earl Warren also had no judicial experience when he was appointed to the court, either.
It seems that in the typical GOP obstructionary mode, they have no ideas other than to say “No”, so they will go to great lengths to distort someone’s record and qualifications to support their narrow views.
Virginia, along with the 32nd District, deserves better from its’ legislators.
Because I would expect a bit more courage from veterans than what is displayed in this pitiably disingenuous letter. Do these gentlemen believe our Senators are stupid?
It’s not as if everyone doesn’t already know the reason for Kagan’s actions with regard to the military recruiters. It’s actually the same reason that even Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University Law School has a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation: a law school can’t be accredited unless it prohibits prospective employers from discriminating. The armed forces, until exempted from that rule by an act of Congress, were legally bound by the same rules as any other employer prowling the campus of Harvard.
If these veterans believe that DADT is a good policy that should be retained, they have every right to say so. The glaring absence of the central fact underlying Kagan’s brief – which they must have read – from their letter indicates that they are afraid to speak freely. Why?