May 19 2010

Why Elena Kagan Should Not be a Supreme Court Justice

Justin’s US Conservative Politics Blog

By , About.com Guide

Why Elena Kagan Should Not be a Supreme Court Justice

Monday May 17, 2010

Sen. Arlen Specter, right, meets with U.S. Solicitor General and  Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in his office at the U.S. Capitol on  May 13, 2010.

When President George W. Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers to be Supreme Court Justice in 2005, liberals decried the choice primarily because Miers had no experience serving on a judicial bench of any kind.

Many conservatives saw the point in this criticism and joined in their calls to withdraw Miers’ name from consideration. In the end, Miers herself saw the writing on the wall and withdrew her own name.

Now, more than five years later, many of those same liberals are saying that the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan is a sound one, despite the fact that she has no experience as a judge. The appointment of judges to serve on the Supreme Court is a relatively new phenomenon, they say. The last Supreme Court Justice to not have had any prior experience on the bench was none other than William Rehnquist1, and conservatives certainly had no problem with his decisions, they say. What does it matter that she has no experience as a judge?

It matters plenty.

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