More Senators Oppose, Support Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Kagan

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 15, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

More Senators Oppose, Support Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Kagan

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 15
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — More members of the Senate are announcing their positions on the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. President Barack Obama named her to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens and she would join the 5-4 pro-abortion majority.

Sen. John Cornyn, a pro-life Texas Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced his opposition late Wednesday.

"Kagan’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee did not assure me that she agrees with the traditional understanding of the proper role of a judge," he said. "Judges should strictly interpret the written Constitution, which means both enforcing written limitations on the scope of government power … as well as not inventing new rights or imposing their own policy views on the American people."

"Kagan’s testimony about her judicial philosophy was vague and open to multiple interpretations," Cornyn added. "She backed away from her previous conviction that judicial nominees should be forthright about the direction they would move the courts."

Cornyn also cited her lack of legal experience in addition to her judicial activism.

"Kagan lacks experience that could give us more insight into her judicial philosophy. As a lawyer, she has never tried a case to verdict. She only joined the Supreme Court bar in 2009, and she has never served as a judge," he said.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a pro-life Georgia lawmaker, joined his GOP colleague to oppose Kagan.

“Any judge who sits on the nation’s highest court must understand that the correct venue for making policy is the legislative branch. After reviewing Solicitor General Kagan’s record, I remain unconvinced that she will show this requisite judicial restraint," he said.

“Her inadequate answers leave me with significant concerns on several issues," Chambliss added, including "her support for the egregious practice of partial-birth abortion."

Meanwhile, pro-abortion Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania announced his support for Kagan but criticized her at the same time. His decision is a disappointment to Kagan opponents who hoped he would vote against her again as she did when he was a Republican and voting on her Solicitor General nomination.

He announced Wednesday night he will vote for Kagan despite what he called her "stonewalling" of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Most of an opinion column that appeared in USA Today that Specter wrote was devoted to criticizing her judicial activism and performance in the hearings.

"It may be understandable that she said little after White House coaching and the continuing success of stonewalling nominees. But it is regrettable. Some indication of her judicial philosophy may be gleaned by her self-classification as a "progressive" and her acknowledged admiration for Justice Thurgood Marshall," he wrote.

During questioning at the hearings, lawmakers questioned Kagan on memos she wrote during the Clinton administration “manipulating” the opinions of two medical groups that had said partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary for women.

Kagan also sought to influence the American Medical Association and get the AMA to revise its opinion that partial-birth abortions provide no medical benefit for women.

Senators asked Kagan about the memos during Judiciary Committee hearings and she explained her actions away by saying she wanted to help ACOG form a more accurate opinion.

After citing her role in lobbying the medical organizations, the Times says senators need to keep this in mind when they vote.

The memos are important because the Supreme Court initially relied on the opinion of the medical groups to overturn a state ban on partial-birth abortions that had no health exception.

Later, the Supreme Court reversed itself and said a national partial-birth abortion ban was constitutional and no health exception is necessary.

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

 

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