SCOTUS on POTUS
Politico’s Mike Allen is reporting that President Obama will name Soliciter General Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court pick to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on Monday. Although it appears as if Kagan’s a shoe in for the job, Allen also notes that White House aides aren’t one hundred percent sure what the President will do.
Swapping Justice Stevens, a self-professed liberal, for Kagan seems like an even exchange, however if the President does indeed nominate Kagan, expect to see some blowback on the liberal side:
Salon’s Glen Grenwald says, “[Kagan] could easily end up as the Democrats’ version of the Bush-41-appointed David Souter, i.e., someone about whom little is known and ends up for decades embracing a judicial philosophy that is the exact opposite of the one the President’s party supports.”"
HuffPo’s Sam Stein writes, “[she] is far more conservative than Stevens and could shift the political dynamic of the high court.” They add, “praise from conservatives may sound damning to those who worry that the court is too close to corporate interests and too willing to accommodate the radical expansion of executive power.”
And Michael Tomasky from the UK’s Guardian wrote, “a possible Kagan nomination is already being read in part as capitulation to moderates and a blown chance to get a real fire-breather on the court. Obama is obviously not going to nominate a fire-breather. That’s not who he is.”
In any event, there will be blowback no matter whom the President selects. But if the President does go with Kagan as the SCOTUS nominee, she’ll have some ‘splaining to do re: her book in which she wrote that the confirmation process is a “vapid and hollow charade.”
