Kagan experience stirs debate
Social issues rise with nomination
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court seat is elevating touchy social issues in an election year, just as the Tea Party is showing how volatile and unpredictable the political landscape has become.
Any Supreme Court confirmation battle stirs a pot of issues important to conservative and liberal activists. Kagan can expect to be grilled about abortion, privacy, property rights, gun control, treatment of terrorist suspects and her lack of judicial experience.
Sen. Roger Wicker told the Rotary Club of Jackson on Monday that he didn’t have a lot of information about Kagan but is keeping an open mind. Because she has never served on a court, he said there’s very little to look at in terms of her record “of how she would decide on a variety of cases.”
“I will say, I do not rule her out because she doesn’t have judicial experience,” said Wicker, a Republican. “Justice (William) Rehnquist didn’t have judicial experience and in my view he turned out to be an excellent justice and chief justice.”
Jim Rosenblatt, dean of the Mississippi College School of Law, said he was pleased to see Wicker take what he considered to be a “thoughtful and studied approach” on Kagan’s nomination.
Clarion-Ledger
5/11/10
Magnolia Tribune
