ThinkProgress sets record straight on Kagan [View All]

"Glenn also notes an exchange between Senator Lindsay Graham and General Kagan (R-SC) regarding her views on indefinite detention. In that exchange, Kagan acknowledged that America may indefinitely detain a known terrorist, yet she was also very clear that such a detention could only occur after the detainee received “substantial due process” from an “independent judiciary” in a “transparent” process. In other words, Kagan embraces Justice Stevens’ view of detainee rights, as Stevens has consistently voted to resist Bush’s theory of detention-without-due-process.

A vaguely-related issue is Kagan’s view of the White House’s role within the Executive Branch. In her seminal article on “Presidential Administration,” General Kagan touts the Clinton White House’s supervision of executive branch agencies to ensure that those agencies achieved the “progressive goals” President Clinton was elected to achieve. There is a healthy debate in the progressive legal community regarding how aggressive a president should be in supervising the agencies, but it is also important to note what Kagan’s article is not about. Kagan’s article is about which part of the Executive Branch–the White House or the agencies–should take the lead in setting policy. It does not call for the kind of presidential seizure of power from the legislative and judicial branches that was so common under George W. Bush.

Kagan is also likely to be a much-needed voice against Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito’s crusade to immunize wealthy corporations from accountability under the law. As an adviser to President Bill Clinton, Kagan spearheaded bipartisan legislation to prevent tobacco companies from marketing their products to children — only to watch the court’s conservatives apply an implausible reading of the law and hold tobacco companies immune from such regulation. So Kagan knows what it is like to see years of effort to protect the American people’s heath and safety destroyed by a Supreme Court more concerned with protecting corporations than with upholding the law. Kagan spent much of her career crafting laws intended to protect ordinary Americans–so she understands the terrible consequences of ignoring the law to suit a narrow interest group’s agenda."


http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/10/kagan-nomination/