July 2, 2010 - In agreement with the National Right to Life Committee, Americans United for Life, Family Research Council, and other leading pro-life organizations...
Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati opposes confirmation of Elena Kagan to the office of Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
According to a National Right to Life letter to Senators (see full letter), Elena Kagan:
Is first and foremost a social engineer, animated primarily by a desire to shape public policy on a host of issues. Her legal training and talent is chiefly directed to these ends.
She believes that it "is not necessarily wrong or invalid" for appointed judges "to mold and steer the law in order to promote certain ethical values and achieve certain social ends,"(1983 Oxford University thesis).
It is anticipated that Ms. Kagan will treat the U.S. Constitution not as a body of basic law that truly constrains both legislators and judges, but rather, as a cookbook in which may be found legal recipes that will allow the imposition of the policies that Ms. Kagan deems to be justified or advisable.
Was a key strategist - perhaps, indeed, the lead strategist within the White House - in the successful effort to prevent enactment of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act during the Clinton Administration, where she presented to the President selective and distorted information, and employed a variety of legal and political arguments, to achieve her overriding goal of defeating the legislation. ...
Ms. Kagan played a key role in keeping the brutal partial-birth abortion method legal for
an additional decade.
Other positions, Ms. Kagan has held of concern (see NRLC letter) include:
Soon after the first cloned human mammal (Dolly the sheep) was created in 1996,
Ms. Kagan defended the position that creation of human embryos by cloning should be
allowed, as long as the embryos were used as research subjects and not allowed to develop to
birth (a policy known as "clone and kill").
In 1998, Ms. Kagan said that the question of whether physicians in Oregon should be prevented
by federal law from using federally controlled drugs in the practice of assisted suicide....would be a "terrible idea."
In the area of First Amendment jurisprudence...as Solicitor General, in the case of Citizens United v. FEC, Ms. Kagan defended the proposition that the government has the authority to severely restrict or ban not only broadcast ads but even pamphlets, if produced by incorporated groups [such as Right to Life], deemed to be election-related because of their proximity to an election and their reference to federal office seekers.
These are only a few of Ms. Kagan's suspect and troublesome credentials. As the hearings are being conducted now, more information is coming to light.
ACTION:Please contact your Senators immediately to oppose confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.
