Reply #8: I believe Andrew Sullivan has championed this hypocritical view [View All]

that Kagan make clear her sexual identity. To me, that is SUPREME BULLSHIT.

I am disappointed in Obama's selection of Kagan as I do not appreciate what we do know about her
sympathies if you will, for the executive branch.

Is she qualified? Yes. Do I want to see someone like Woods on the court instead, damn right I do. I don't
appreciate the risk factor with Kagan, not at all.


snip* However, several of her works deal with presidential power, particularly her article “Presidential Administration” (LEXIS password required). This is a beautiful, extremely perceptive work, closely observed, brilliantly reasoned, and cautious. In it, Kagan notes the increase of presidential power as Congress builds the administrative and regulatory state. The powers that Congress vests in regulatory agencies are necessarily assumed and controlled by the president. Kagan writes as a detached observer, yet there is much to suggest her admiration for the evolution of the strong presidency in the period after World War II. Her career choices, often pushing back her academic career to accept appointments in Democratic administrations, reflect an attitude of engagement with it. All of this leads to the assumption that as a Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan will be no enemy to the powers of the executive. As my readers know, I am not sympathetic to this attitude. But I am impressed with Kagan’s powers of analysis and presentation just the same. My suspicion–and it’s only a suspicion–is that Kagan is a liberal in the sense of the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, someone who has faith in the power of the executive to shape a better and more just state. She pays lip service to the limitations on executive authority contained in the Constitution, but she’s generally in the thrall of executive power.

On this point the Kagan choice probably reflects the perspective of the man who made it, Barack Obama: not the Obama of the 2008 presidential campaign but rather the Obama who has governed since January 20, 2009—broadly continuing the strong executive posture of the Bush team in national security matters.


in full: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/05/hbc-90007020