Supreme Court Pick: Kagan "Loves" the Federalist Society

Solicitor General Elena Kagan is widely reported to be a leading
contender for the Supreme Court position being vacated by John Paul
Stevens.

FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of law at the University of Illinois, Boyle is author of
"Tackling America's Toughest Questions." He said today: "As dean of the
Harvard Law School, Kagan hired Bush's outgoing director of the Office
of Legal Counsel, Jack Goldsmith, as a law professor. Goldsmith is
regarded by myself and many others in the field as a war criminal. He
wrote some of the memos that attempted to make violations of the Geneva
Conventions appear legal. Kagan actually bragged about 'how proud' she
was to have hired Goldsmith after one of his criminal Department of
Justice memoranda was written up in the Washington Post.

"During the course of her Senate confirmation hearings as
Solicitor General, Kagan explicitly endorsed the Bush administration's
bogus category of 'enemy combatant,' whose implementation has been a
war crime in its own right. Now in her current job as U.S. Solicitor
General, Kagan is quarterbacking the continuation of the Bush
administration's illegal and unconstitutional positions in U.S. federal
court litigation around the country, including in the U.S. Supreme
Court. For example, early this month, the Obama administration lost an
illegal wiretapping case. One of the lawyers in the case who won, Jon
Eisenberg, said the Obama administration is as bad or worse than the
Bush administration when it comes to issues like state secrets and
wiretapping.

"Kagan is apparently being backed by several people who are
indebted to her from her time at Harvard. [Professors Laurence] Tribe,
[Charles] Ogletree and [Alan] Dershowitz all had plagiarism scandals
while Kagan headed up the law school -- and she in effect bailed them
all out. Tribe and Ogletree were teachers/mentors to Obama and still
advise him today, Tribe recently taking a job in the Department of
Justice along with Kagan. She was named dean at Harvard by Larry
Summers, who helped deregulate much of Wall Street in the Clinton
administration and organize much of its bailout under Obama.

"Kagan has said 'I love the Federalist Society.' This is a
right-wing group; almost all of the Bush administration lawyers
responsible for its war and torture memos are members of the Federalist
Society. Many members of the Federalist Society say that Brown v. Board
of Education [which struck down 'separate but equal'] was decided
wrongly.

"Five currently on the U.S. Supreme Court were or are members of
the Federalist Society: Harvard Law graduate Roberts; Harvard Law
graduate Scalia; Harvard Law graduate Kennedy; Yale Law graduate
Thomas; and Yale Law graduate Alito. A narrow elite is imposing itself
through the legal system, and ordinary Americans need to start
asserting themselves."

Boyle is a former chair of the Harvard Law School Fund Campaign
for Greater Illinois and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law
School.

Background:

Glenn Greenwald on Tuesday wrote in "The Case Against Elena Kagan":
"The prospect that Stevens will be replaced by Elena Kagan has led to
the growing perception that Barack Obama will actually take a Supreme
Court dominated by Justices Scalia (Reagan), Thomas (Bush 41), Roberts
(Bush 43), Alito (Bush 43) and Kennedy (Reagan) and move it further to
the Right. Joe Lieberman went on Fox News this weekend to celebrate the
prospect that 'President Obama may nominate someone in fact who makes
the Court slightly less liberal.'"

The New York Times reported on Friday: "In an interview last week,
[Stevens] said that every one of the dozen justices appointed to the
court since 1971, including himself, was more conservative than his or
her predecessor. 'We'll wait and see to see if the most recent change
fits that,' he said of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined the court
last year. 'But prior to Sonia's joining the court that was true with
the possible exception of Ruth Ginsburg.'"

The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal reported Monday: "As dean of
Harvard, Ms. Kagan cultivated good relations with conservatives, hiring
several professors with right-leaning views and reaching out to the
Federalist Society, a training ground for lawyers who often go on to
populate Republican administrations."

Jeff Cohen wrote last year: "Will Obama Move Supreme Court Rightward?"