EXCLUSIVE: Documents Show Kagan's Liberal Opinion on Social Issues

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CBS

Posted by Jan Crawford

Elena Kagan has kept her cards so close to the vest that in the days after President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, some on the left worried she was too moderate to replace liberal Justice John Paul Stevens.

But in documents obtained by CBS News, Kagan--while working as a law clerk to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall - made her positions clear on some of the nation's most contentious social issues.

The documents, buried in Marshall's papers in the Library of Congress, show Kagan standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the liberal left, at a time when the Rehnquist Supreme Court was moving to the conservative right.

They also provide a remarkably candid picture of her opinions, including on the most controversial issue Supreme Court nominees ever confront: abortion.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-20006769-504564.html?tag=contentBody;featuredPost-PE

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CBSNews.com Special Report: Elena Kagan http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-250_162-601.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

[babylonsister]

1. Ruh roh. Rethugs will use this as ammo unfortunately. nt

[Better Believe It]

2. How about issues such as defense of our Constitution and civil liberties?

The growing power and abuse of power by the executive branch of government, government spying, illegal wars conducted without a declaration of war by Congress, torture, government organized and approved assassinations, etc.,

Not that important?

[Iowa]

5. You are correct.

Furthermore, her opinions while working as a clerk for Marshall decades ago tells us very little about her opinions today. It was a different time. She was young. She was working for a legendary liberal judge...

Hell, just look at Obama himself. Did his opinions in 2008 tell us a damned thing about what his opinions would be in 2009, only one year later? No.

[aquart]

3. Hush!

[marshall]

4. She should be proud of her record

It's not change unless something is different.

[No Elephants]

6. She was working for Justice Marshall. We'll see what her views are once she's on the Court.

"In those 2009 hearings, she explained she was merely trying to reflect Marshall's views when she wrote memos to him.


"I was a 27-year-old pipsqueak, and I was working for an 80-year-old giant in the law, and a person who, let us be frank, had very strong jurisprudential and legal views," Kagan testified."


Amazing how many ignore the OP article.