AP: As Marshall clerk, Kagan was wary of conservatives

[usregimechange]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As a young lawyer working for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan repeatedly expressed her concern that a conservative Supreme Court was looking for ways to cut back on the rights of women, criminal defendants and prisoners.

Documents from Kagan's year with Marshall show a law clerk who was frequently assessing the politics of the institution. Her memos to the justice are on file in Marshall's papers at the Library of Congress.

Kagan's time with Marshall, the groundbreaking lawyer who argued against segregation and later became the first African-American on the court, is likely to be a subject at her confirmation hearing, scheduled to begin in late June. She would be only the sixth justice to have served as a law clerk for the high court, but the only one whose former boss's papers were public at the time of her nomination.

Some Senate Republicans already have signaled they could make issue an issue of Kagan's clerkship with Marshall, whom conservatives have branded an activist judge more concerned about outcomes than rules.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_KAGAN_MARSHALL_CLERK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Arkana]

1. But...but don't you see? She's Antonin Scalia in disguise!!!!!!!!!!1111

[usregimechange]

4. I wouldn't try to radicalize her liberal neutral observers or opponents, they may yet be right

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. She pals around with terrorists! And child molestors!

:rofl:

[Unvanguard]

3. Good! She won't be, but if she were the next Justice Marshall I would be delighted.

There is a strong association between how much she annoys Republicans and how good a justice she will make. :)

[usregimechange]

5. We can almost guage our support by it

[Uzybone]

6. the NYTimes describers her as "intensely ambitious"

the horror of an ambitious woman reaching the peak of her career.

[zipplewrath]

7. No one is making the case that she is another Scalia

They are making the case that the average of her, and the rest of the court, will move it the average to the right.

[usregimechange]

8. I am not even making that case but I do have that concern, I would bet that she will turn out

to not be a disappointment to us but I wouldn't put a lot of money on it.