Kagan Praised Liberal Justice Marshall

Source: LA Times

President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court may not have been the first choice of liberals, but in a tribute to Justice Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan praised his view that the high court has a duty to protect the poor, the despised and the disavantaged.

"In Justice Marshall's view,…it was the role of the courts, in interpreting the Constitution, to protect the people who went unprotected by every other organ of government, to safeguard the interests of people who had no other champion," she wrote. "However much some recent justices have sniped at that vision, it remains a thing of glory," she concluded.

On Wednesday, Kagan will begin a round of courtesy calls in the Senate to meet with Republicans and Democrats. "It's a confirmation, not a coronation," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. Because Kagan has no experience as a judge, senators will have to look closely at all of her past writings, including memos from her days in the Clinton White House, he said.

In selecting Kagan, the president described Kagan as being intellectually brilliant and as someone who understands how law "affects the lives of the ordinary people."

During most of her career, Kagan has worked in academia or within Democratic administrations, but she has not portrayed herself as a champion of liberal causes. But she began her career working for two legendary liberal judges.

She worked first for Judge Abner Mikva. A year later, at his recommendation, she went to work at the Supreme Court as a clerk Marshall. He was a "hero of American law," she said. Marshall led the civil rights movement in the courts and won the key rulings that struck down state-enforced segregation.

Kagan praised a speech Marshall gave in 1987 which took issue with the pending celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. Where many were then proclaiming the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, Marshall called the Constitution "defective from the start" because its rights did not extend to the majority of Americans: women and blacks.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-kagan-court-20100511,0,812977.story

And Marshall thought the Constitution's original compromise with slavery was an evil blight on our history!

I guess this puts the neo-secessionists' and neo-segregationists' panties in a wad

But the Civil War is long over. Jim Crow is dead, too; he went straight to hell. I won't pretend anyone, who tries to put those old issues back on the table, wants rational discussion