Praise for an Israeli Judge Drives Criticism of Kagan

[cali]

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 24, 2010


WASHINGTON — Most Americans have never heard of Aharon Barak. If they tune in to Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, they will.
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Judge Barak, the retired president of the Supreme Court of Israel, has advocated an expansive role for the judiciary in his home country. But in this country, he has emerged over the past few days as a kind of liberal judicial villain for Republicans and conservatives, who are trying to turn Ms. Kagan’s praise for him against her.

In 2006, while dean of Harvard Law School, Ms. Kagan introduced Judge Barak during an award ceremony as “my judicial hero.” She added, “He is the judge or justice in my lifetime whom, I think, best represents and has best advanced the values of democracy and human rights, of the rule of law and of justice.”

The White House says Ms. Kagan was simply welcoming back a former student; Judge Barak studied at Harvard in the 1960s. But Ms. Kagan’s opponents have rolled out Judge Barak — “the other Barack,” some call him, in reference to President Obama — as Exhibit A in the case against her.

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On Wednesday, Judge Robert Bork, whose own Supreme Court nomination in 1987 resulted in a Senate vote against confirmation, said Judge Barak “may be the worst judge on the planet, the most activist,” and argued that Ms. Kagan’s admiration for him is “disqualifying in and of itself.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/us/politics/25kagan.html

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Well , this is nice but I'm not sure it qualifies as visionary either:

>>>>>He is also an ardent champion of civil liberties; during the Persian Gulf war of 1991, he insisted the Israeli government hand out gas masks to Arabs in Israel-occupied territories.>>>>>

What, on Earth, would have been the alternative?

[cali]

2. well, I'm not sure that that's the point but

here's a bit more about him:

From wiki:

On September 14, 2006, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age, Barak resigned from the Supreme Court. Three months later he published his final judgements, among them a number of precedents regarding damages in tort for residents of the Palestinian territories, Israel's policy of targeted killing and preferential treatment for IDF veterans.