Sunday, May 16, 2010
Elena Kagan
Well, Barry O's got to pick his second SC justice. He's gonna nominate a lady from back East, Ivy League, Jewish. My primo says she will be a very good judge, and he knows a lot more about that than I do, but … there are now six Roman Catholic justices and three Jewish justices. All of those people are Ivy Leaguers by education, establishment types, northeastern. The closest thing on the court to what I think of as a traditional American upbringing is Clarence Thomas. I'd feel better about the court if there were a couple of people on it who grew up with a .22 in the closet, who had put a worm on a fish hook, who could sing along with some of the songs in the Broadman Hymnal. And, I'd think it kinda nice if there were maybe three people on the court who could qualify for membership in the Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution or at least were descended from people who've been here more than a hundred years. Fifty percent of Americans are Protestants, and if any other group constituting half of the population were completely unrepresented on the court, I suspect we'd be hearing loud and shrill whining.
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Hey Cousin, you might add to this unrepresentative bunch that they are all former federal court of appeals judges. i can name several supreme court justices who came to the bench of that court without experience as a judge. hugo black, thurgood marshall, felix frankfurter, earl warren, wm. rehnquist, wm. o. douglas, and abe fortas, to name some who come to mind.
hugo black, a mere politician from alabama, was the most lucid legal writer i have read. he wrote his opinions without attempting poesy, and they were rarely long. in the last 20 years, the supreme court justices and other appellate judges have become windbags, writing longer opinions and issuing fewer of them.
elena kagan's gift to the supreme court, i hope, will be her people skills. we have enough ideological purists on the court, particularly in the catholic wing, and not enough people who seek a consensus. let us pray.
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