Activist Kagan Confirmed by Senate

The U.S. Senate confirmed U.S. Solicitor General and political activist Elena Kagan by a vote of 63 – 37 to be the next Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kagan, at 50 years of age, will now hold a lifetime seat on the highest court in the land. Elena Kagan has not served a single day on any federal court. But, there is plenty known about her work in the Clinton White House, as President Obama’s top lawyer before the Supreme Court. Also, Kagan’s answers during her confirmation prompted our community, through Catholic Advocate Voice, to send over 3,000 letters to the U.S. Senate urging opposition to her confirmation. Even though we did not prevail, they made a difference.

When you wrote your Senators there were several disqualifications highlighted from her record:

• A willingness to look at international law when deciding domestic cases.
• Not answering questions regarding a tendency toward anti-religious bias.
• A proven history of supporting federal funding for abortion, including her work in the Clinton White House advocating against the partial birth abortion ban and trying to manipulate health sector reports.
• Support for extending benefits to same-sex couples.
• Refusal to recuse herself from future litigation on the health care reform bill.

Elena Kagan embraces an activist judicial philosophy. We can now look forward to the fact that her political views will drive her legal views. Her extensive record shows a disregard for interpreting the U.S. Constitution and a disposition to act as an activist judge rather than with fairness and impartiality.

Twenty-four percent of the U.S. Senate is Catholic. Of those who are Catholic, seventeen voted to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. This is how each Catholic Member of the United States Senate voted on Elena Kagan’s confirmation:

1. Senator Mark Begich (D, Alaska) – Yes
2. Senator Sam Brownback (R, Kansas) – No
3. Senator Jim Bunning (R, Kentucky) – No
4. Senator Maria Cantwell (D, Washington) – Yes
5. Senator Robert Casey (D, Pennsylvania) – Yes
6. Senator Susan Collins (R, Maine) – Yes
7. Senator Chris Dodd (D, Connecticut) – Yes
8. Senator Richard Durbin (D, Illinois) – Yes
9. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D, New York) – Yes
10. Senator Tom Harkin (D, Iowa) – Yes
11. Senator Mike Johanns (R, Nebraska) – No
12. Senator Ted Kaufman (D, Delaware) – Yes
13. Senator John Kerry (D, Massachusetts) – Yes
14. Senator Mary Landrieu (D, Louisiana) – Yes
15. Senator Patrick Leahy (D, Vermont) – Yes
16. Senator George LeMieux (R, Florida) – No
17. Senator Claire McCaskill (D, Missouri) – Yes
18. Senator Robert Menendez (D, New Jersey) – Yes
19. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D, Maryland) – Yes
20. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R, Alaska) – No
21. Senator Patty Murray (D, Washington) – Yes
22. Senator Jack Reed (D, Rhode Island) – Yes
23. Senator David Vitter (R, Louisiana) – No
24. Senator George Voinovich (R, Ohio) – No