E-mails reveal a little of Elena Kagan’s views on gay-related issues
In a spring 2005 e-mail, an Air Force representative said he had been “assured” that Harvard Law School would resume sponsoring military recruiters the next fall. Mark Weber, who oversaw the school’s career services office, “expressed that though Dean Kagan had made her position (opposition) to military recruiting very clear, the university president felt differently,” the e-mail said.
From a Washington Post article that looks at Elena Kagan‘s role as Dean of Harvard University’s School of Law. Kagan is the current choice by President Barack Obama to become the next Supreme Court Justice. While at Harvard, it’s reported that “Kagan suspended help to military recuiters” over the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, but that the help was reinstated by Harvard President Lawrence Summers later on. Very little appears to be known about Kagan’s views on many issues, and some controversy has erupted recently over Kagan’s perceived sexual orientation as well. Gays and progressive political allies fear that the Supreme Court is already too heavily populated with socially conservative Justices who do not support the establishment of laws that extend equal rights to the LGBT community. (Washington Post)
In 1999, Kagan called herself the “biggest fan … in this building” of a proposed law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that safeguarded religious freedom against government intrusion. But she warned against having Vice President Al Gore endorse it for fear of a “gay/lesbian firestorm.” Showing her pragmatic side, she also warned that if that bill were modified to benefit gays and lesbians, “you’ll have a religious groups firestorm on your hands.”
From a Seattle Time article regarding newly released emails about Elena Kagan‘s past political involvment as part of President Bill Clinton‘s White House. (Seattle Times)
Ms. Kagan scorned the California justices’ rationale that the landlord’s religious freedom was not burdened because she could get another job. “The plurality’s reasoning seem to me quite outrageous — almost as if a court were to hold that a state law does not impose a substantial burden on religion because the complainant is free to move to another state,” Ms. Kagan wrote.
From a New York Times article that examines many of Elena Kagan‘s views that seem to support “religious freedoms,” including her dislike of a court decision against a landlord who did not want to rent to an unwed couple. Some concern is being made about how this could be extended to same-sex couples who are not allowed to be married in most parts of the United States. (New York Times) (Out and About)
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