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Will She Get Confirmed?

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That's the question of the day, along with should she get confirmed.  My Stanford classmate and political analyst Paul Mirengoff sees two possible grounds to oppose her  --  that she is unqualified, and that she is a hide-bound, doctrinaire liberal.

The qualifications question is particularly interesting, given that she was, after all, at age 43, dean of the Harvard Law School.  Paul notes:

Depending on the standard one applies, Kagan's lack of judging experience and substantial real world legal experience, coupled with the apparent absence of major legal scholarship, might support a conclusion that she is not sufficiently well-qualified to serve on the nation's highest court. As Ed Whelan says, "Kagan may well have less experience relevant to the work of being a justice than any justice in the last five decades or more."

My guess is that, when all is said and done, reasonable Republican Senators will be able to conclude either that Kagan is minimally qualified or that she is not. Based on my knowledge of the current record, I tend to believe that Kagan possesses the minimum qualifications needed for the job.

Read the entire analysis here. Paul concludes, and tentatively I agree, that while there may well be reasonable grounds to oppose her on the merits, there are insufficient grounds to launch a filibuster  --  an extraordinary move for a Supreme Court nomination  -- and thus deny her an up-or-down vote.

President Obama won the election and is entitled to his choice, subject to Senate confirmation.  The bad news is that the last election had consequences.  The good news is that the next one will too.

 

3 Comments

Obama tried to filibuster Alito. So he is not entitled to squat.

People of principle are required to act on principle, regardless of the bad behavior of their opponents.

The principle here is that a nominee should be confirmed if intellectually and tempermentally qualified; is devoted to the wellbeing of the United States and constitutional governance; and is not outside the mainstream of legal thinking.

If it turns out that Kagan is outside the mainstream, as it might, blocking her would be justified (indeed imperative). But in my opinion it is not justified because Senator Obama was on bad behavior.

Presumably, the Republican Party in two years will be asking the electorate to displace Obama with their candidate precisely because they act differently. The time to start demonstrating this, in everything from budget realism to playing it straight on judgeships, is now.

Her actions against military recruiters were appalling and are disqualifying.

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