Breyer is finally giving up the Court ghost. Thank God. Now, in order to make the Court at least not get worse, Sotomayor and Kagan both need to do the same thing. I know that Paul has made this point before on Sotomayor in terms...
Elena Kagan
What Greenwald said. On the first point, Paul's post on Kagan and the legal establishment is obviously relevant. I just wonder if Tribe actually believes the highly implausible claims that.
Kagan confirmed. I hope she will prove to be a successful appointment.
By far the most common defense of the Kagan pick in our comments sections has been to cite her age. Indeed, several regulars have made the claim that Diane Wood's age should obviously have eliminated her from consideration. I think this is utterly silly, and...
One the one hand, I agree with Rosen here, with the major caveat that "more substantive that the last three hearings" is a bar comparable to a major league team.
For the reasons cited by Barbara, this would-be Elena Kagan "scandal" about changed wording in an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists position paper -- being promoted by the likes.
The ritual of the Kagan hearings makes for a disgusting spectacle, but hey, Bismark, sausage, whatever.
I guess she will be a judge in the same tradition as Louis Brandeis, in the same sense that Vincente Padilla is a "Dodgers Opening Day starter" in the tradition.
On the narrow point at issue, I agree with Yglesias and Greenwald that the conflation of sexual identity with someone's "sex life" is silly. I'm reminded of my favorite example.
Tom Tomorrow. A couple of weeks into this I'm curious about how many self-identified progressives are OK with the Kagan nomination as it stands, or more precisely will remain OK with it when her confirmation hearings feature, as they almost surely will, nothing beyond the...
Shorter Erick Erickson: If, like me, you're not sufficiently literate to distinguish between normative and empirical arguments, than Elena Kagan is a total socialist!!!!!!! Because everybody pretty much believes everything.
As Glenn Greenwald points out, skepticism about the Kagan appointment issuing from anyone left of Miguel Estrada (who by the way thinks Kagan is a terrific pick) has been met.