Will Elena Kagan Move The Supreme Court to the Right?
The following comment was sent in from a TexasGOPVote reader regarding the opening of John Paul Stevens Supreme Court Justice seat:
Progressives are up in arms regarding the supposed front runner for SCOTUS nomination, Elena Kagan, saying that if she takes the bench she will push the court further to the right (in the absence of Liberal Lion J.P. Stevens). If this is true, I wouldn't be surprised if the President could get some bi-partisan support for her.
However, one thing that may be lurking beneath the surface is that the progressive are "protesting too much" - touting the ways that Kagan will shift the court IN ORDER to get support from the right because the left really wants her on the bench. If this is correct, it is a brilliant strategy.
A quick response relates directly to what I wrote the other day. Being younger, she probably readily assumes that as a judge, she has the right, indeed the duty, to impose her demonstrably contemporary and progressive ideals onto The Constitution and the law.
That said, it’s not beyond conception that she could move the court some measure to the right, simply because Stevens sets the bar so low. Over time, he became reliably on the left side of any case that made its way to The Supreme Court.
The bottom line is that, at where we have arrived today, it makes no difference.
- Toleration of expanding on the original intent of The Constitution must be seen by the conservative party as out of bounds, PERIOD.
- We are now also uniquely in the middle of an unprecedented public reaction to the left and defiance of The Constitution. Ergo, even if you allow as I don’t, that conscience and The Constitution are negotiable in the face of questionable politics, there is not even, right now, a political cost to this posture of restraining liberal activism and preserving The Constitution, unless Republicans prove entirely inept at communicating the message. Unfortunately, they too often have.