Today President Obama announced Elena Kagan, current Solicitor General and former Harvard Law School Dean, as his choice to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.
President Obama recently said he doesn’t have a “litmus test” for Supreme Court nominees on their abortion views, but went on to say “I want somebody who is going to be interpreting our Constitution in a way that takes into account individual rights, and that includes women’s rights, and that is going to be something that is very important to me.” Although he doesn’t call it a “litmus test,” President Obama clearly wants a justice who believes that the right to an abortion is guaranteed in the Constitution.
Elena Kagan fits this description perfectly. She publicly criticized a 1991 Supreme Court ruling, Rust v. Sullivan, that upheld the right of the Department of Health and Human Services to restrict funding from groups that performed or promoted abortion. Additionally, she has expressed her belief that crisis pregnancy centers should be barred from guiding teens in decisions about their pregnancy.
Her career and associations considered, Kagan will be an activist judge. We need judges who make decisions based on the Constitution, not on personal views. And we do not need someone to legislate from the bench, but to ensure the Constitution is upheld.
