| Wait? What's this? Did I read this correctly? Republican Senators are attacking SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan...because she admired Thurgood Marshall???
Of course, what the Republicans are accusing Marshall of - and "smearing" by association Marshall-admiring Kagan with - is their notion of "judicial activism." Yes, because Marshall said the Constitution, as originally conceived was defective. You, know, because it supported slavery.
Compare Marshall's form of "judicial activism" - belief that the Constitution was wrong in allowing people to own other people - with contemporary judicial activism, via Al Franken:
I think we've established very convincingly, we did during the Sotomayor hearing, that there is such a thing as judicial activism. There is such a thing as legislating from the bench. And it is practiced repeatedly by the Roberts court, and it has cut in only one direction, in favor of powerful corporate interests and against the rights of individual Americans.
This is a stunt, of course, a little theater to rile up the base to ensure they head to the polls in November, and a nod to those who are still upset about civil rights. I doubt they'd filibuster the nomination. That'd be pretty unreasonable, given that Kagan is hardly the most progressive choice.
Still, Thurgood Marshall? What's next, Martin Luther King?
And...well...is anyone else here kinda, sorta rooting for the GOP to derail Kagan's nomination? Maybe then Obama could nominate someone else, like Diane Wood... |
