Senate Republican Leader, Moderate GOPer to Oppose Pro-Abortion Kagan

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 2, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Senate Republican Leader, Moderate GOPer to Oppose Pro-Abortion Kagan

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 2
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The top Senate Republicans and one of a handful of moderate Republicans who is not pro-life are both opposed to the nomination of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he intends to oppose Kagan on the Senate floor.

With her nomination expected to be approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee following contentious hearings this week, McConnell will likely get that chance to vote no.

“In her testimony this week, Ms. Kagan acknowledged that it is ‘difficult to take off the advocate’s hat and put on the judge’s hat,’" the Kentucky pro-life Republican said. "That difficulty is particularly acute for someone like Ms. Kagan, who has spent so much of her adult life practicing the art of political advocacy rather than practicing law."

“Unfortunately, Ms. Kagan failed to explain how she could overcome that difficulty, falling well short, in fact, of meeting her own standard for providing the Senate helpful testimony. She was far from forthcoming in discussing her own views on basic principles of American constitutional law," McConnell added.

“I do not have confidence that if she were confirmed to a lifetime position on the Supreme Court she would suddenly constrain the ardent political advocacy that has marked much of her adult life. The American people expect a justice who will impartially apply the law, not one who will be a rubberstamp for the Obama administration or any other administration," the leader continued. "For these reasons, I will oppose Ms. Kagan’s confirmation.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who is not pro-life, says she, too, will vote no on Kagan on the Senate floor.

"As Ms. Kagan acknowledges, the cases that come before the Supreme Court are difficult in nature and not always answered by precedent. Over the past week Ms. Kagan has given the American people hardly any idea about how she will approach these difficult cases," the senator said.

"Her responses to many of the questions posed by my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee were clever and graceful but not terribly revealing and in many cases evasive," Murkowski added.

The Alaska senator also expressed hesitation because Kagan shows little judicial or legal experience preparing her for serving on the nation’s highest court.

“I did not support Ms. Kagan’s nomination to be Solicitor General of the United States because I did not think she had the requisite experience for the job. It is not essential that a Supreme Court nominee have experience as a judge but those who lacked that experience had substantial experience in the practice of law," she said.

She concluded, " Kagan has spent the bulk of her career as an academic, a university administrator and policy advisor. For the reasons I have cited here, I plan to oppose her nomination when it comes before the Senate."

McConnell’s and Murkowski’s opposition come on the heels of pro-life Sen. Orrin Hatch becoming the first member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to announce his opposition to Kagan.

Pro-life groups have described Elena Kagan as the stereotypical judicial activist and abortion advocate.

She clerked for pro-abortion Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom she lauded, and her writings dating back to her college days are filled with accolades for judges who took the law into their hands and twisted it for a desired outcome rather than relying on the people through their elected officials.

Kagan helped Bill Clinton defend his veto of a partial-birth abortion ban — the gruesome abortion procedure when a baby is birthed halfway and then jabbed in the head with medical scissors, killing him or her. She helped Clinton find political cover for his decision to keep those abortions legal.

Kagan went as far as advocating that the Clinton administration not only ignore but manipulate the opinion of a national medical group that said there was never any medical justification for killing unborn children halfway out of the birth canal.

Kagan has also lauded human cloning and assisted suicide and we can expect those gruesome practices to expand if she becomes the next Supreme Court justice.

Related web sites:
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan

 

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.