June 12, 2010

Statement Opposing nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court

Seattle, WA – Anne Slater, National Organizer of Radical Women, issued the following statement on President Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Radical Women opposes the potential seating of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kagan has shown herself to be a calculating seeker of power and no ally of the oppressed or the Constitution. We do not support using reproductive rights as a bargaining chip as Kagan did in advising President Clinton to outlaw late-term abortion. We are outraged that Kagan defends the constitutionality of the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act. She has had nothing to say about the atrocious legislative and judicial assaults on civil liberties during the Bush and Obama administrations. In fact, in her confirmation hearings as Obama's solicitor general, she agreed with issues such as indefinite detention of those suspected of terrorist activities. In her tenure as dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan filled 32 teaching positions— but hired only seven women and one person of color. She is lauded for increasing Harvard's diversity by hiring conservatives."

"Our priority is advancing the rights of women, workers, people of color, immigrants and queers. Giving a lifetime appointment to a female judge who is on the opposite side on all these issues is not progress."

"One reason many people supported a Democrat for President was that they hoped it would prevent the nomination of far-right Supreme Court justices. Instead, President Obama has nominated a female candidate whose sole criteria is her relative inoffensiveness to the right. This is no advance for women."

"In fact, the White House nomination is simply continuing capitalist business as usual. The job of the high court is to serve private property interests, not working folks. A glaring example is when five justices appointed Bush president in the 2000 election. Nevertheless, community pressure can influence the courts, as shown by civil rights rulings and the legalization of abortion. The battle to create a justice system that upholds human rights, that recognizes as equal all races, ethnicities, genders and ages, is intertwined with the fight against the profit system and for a socialist society where wealth is shared and the planet is nurtured."