A U.S. Senate committee today gave Elena Kagan, President Obama's pro-abortion, pro-homosexual Supreme Court nominee, the go-ahead to advance on her agenda.
The vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee featured all of the pro-abortion Democrats standing with Kagan and all Republicans opposing her except South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The nomination now will go to the full Senate, where it still is uncertain whether pro-life GOP members will mount an effort to keep her from a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, where her influence could be felt for the next few decades.
The opposition to Kagan in the 13-6 vote was led by Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who said Kagan's answers to the committee included "political spin."
"Throughout her career, Ms. Kagan has placed her politics above the law. She has never been a judge, never tried a case before a jury and has practiced law for only three years," he warned.
Sessions described her as the least-experienced nominee in 50 years.
He also pointed out she was a key part of efforts to allow unlimited "partial-birth" abortions, and she worked to limit gun rights, in addition to her work to expand the rights of homosexual activists.
If she is to be defeated now, it appears that a filibuster – with some help – would be necessary.
Kagan has been criticized by pro-life and pro-family advocates for working, while in the Clinton administration, for partial-birth abortion as well as her campaign to accelerate and legitimize homosexual behavior at Harvard while on the payroll there.
And they note that during Judiciary Committee hearings, she suggested that "precedent" could trump the original intent of the Constitution's authors.
Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, is offering constituents a "take action" option on his website, while a "Stop Kagan Campaign" also is under way.
"We will continue to put every member on notice – Republicans and Democrats – that a vote for Kagan is a vote against the U.S. military, a vote against the Constitution, a vote against free speech and a vote for ultra-partisan extremism and activism on the bench," said Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND who is orchestrating the "Stop Kagan" effort that has generated tens of thousands of individual letters to senators.
The "Stop Kagan Campaign" allows any American citizen to generate 100 individually addressed letters to every U.S. senator, each including the name of the sender and all delivered by FedEx for the low price of just $24.95.
Kagan's critics have pointed out she has only moderate support among Americans and issues that have been exposed in the last several weeks raise significant questions about her.
For example, she was revealed to have "manipulated" the opinions of two doctor's organizations to soften their testimony that partial-birth abortions never are medically needed.
According to Farah, Kagan disqualified herself from serving on the Supreme Court with her statement under oath that she has no view of "natural rights."
"In all my years of observing Washington, I don't think I've ever been more stunned and disappointed by the testimony of a Supreme Court nominee than I was with Elena Kagan," said Farah. "This is someone, who, from her own testimony, doesn't believe in the Declaration of Independence, which we just celebrated and commemorated for the 234th time in our nation's history. This is someone who claims she doesn't have a view about 'natural rights' – those that real Americans believe are unalienable and God-given."
Farah is asking all of his constituents to join his "Stop Kagan Campaign", which delivers personalized, individually addressed, anti-Kagan letters to all 100 U.S. senators by FedEx for only $24.95.
The statements by Kagan came in an exchange with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Farah said most of the press failed to cover her responses, which he deemed as newsworthy as any she made during the hearings:
Coburn: Do you believe it is a fundamental, pre-existing right to have an arm to defend yourself?
Kagan: Senator Coburn, I very much appreciate how deeply important the right to bear arms is to millions and millions of Americans. And I accept Heller, which made clear that the Second Amendment conferred that right upon individuals, and not simply collectively.
Coburn: I'm asking you, Elena Kagan, do you personally believe there is a fundamental right in this area? Do you agree with Blackstone [in] the natural right of resistance and self-preservation, the right of having and using arms for self-preservation and defense? He didn't say that was a constitutional right. He said that's a natural right. And what I'm asking you is, do you agree with that?
Kagan: Senator Coburn, to be honest with you, I don't have a view of what are natural rights, independent of the Constitution. And my job as a justice will be to enforce and defend the Constitution and the laws of the United States.
Coburn: So you wouldn't embrace what the Declaration of Independence says, that we have certain God-given, inalienable rights that aren't given in the Constitution that are ours, ours alone, and that a government doesn't give those to us?
Kagan: Senator Coburn, I believe that the Constitution is an extraordinary document, and I'm not saying I do not believe that there are rights pre-existing the Constitution and the laws. But my job as a justice is to enforce the Constitution and the laws.
Coburn: Well, I understand that. I'm not talking about as a justice. I'm talking about Elena Kagan. What do you believe? Are there inalienable rights for us? Do you believe that?
Kagan: Senator Coburn, I think that the question of what I believe as to what people's rights are outside the Constitution and the laws, that you should not want me to act in any way on the basis of such a belief.
Coburn: I would want you to always act on the basis of the belief of what our Declaration of Independence says.
Kagan: I think you should want me to act on the basis of law. And that is what I have upheld to do, if I'm fortunate enough to be confirmed, is to act on the basis of law, which is the Constitution and the statutes of the United States.
"This woman apparently thinks our rights descend from our Constitution, which is crazy," said Farah. "The Constitution is there to protect our unalienable, God-given human rights – not to define our rights or to invent them."
The campaign to deny Kagan confirmation in the Senate, however, began long before the hearings.
"This woman, as president of her university, banned the U.S. military from recruiting on campus," Farah reminds. "Just contemplate rewarding that kind of vehemently anti-American action with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Elena Kagan must be stopped."
He devised the "Stop Kagan Campaign" based on previous successes in generating heavy volumes of mail to members of Congress.
"It's a phenomenal bargain," says Farah. "It makes it easy for you to sound off on this historically bad nomination. It's a small investment. And I am convinced that if enough Americans take advantage of it, Kagan will be stopped – even by this Senate."
But time is short, Farah says. America is distracted by a floundering economy, a disastrous oil spill and a government that creates new crises on a daily basis, he explains.
Calling Kagan "an activist who wants to govern from the bench," Farah says there's a way to give senators a "spine transplant" and prepare them for the most contentious confirmation fight since Clarence Thomas.
"Kagan is a radical antimilitary and proabortion zealot," said Farah. "This selection by Barack Obama reveals once again his extremist agenda of leaving America undefended, elevating alternative lifestyles to sainthood and exterminating the most innocent human life with reckless abandon and persecuting anyone who tried to stand in the way. In a nutshell, that's who Elena Kagan is."
Farah's goal is to inundate senators with 100,000 letters calling for her rejection for a lifelong appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The letter campaign is based on previously successful efforts in which nearly 10 million "pink slips" were delivered to members of Congress opposing nationalization of health care, cap-and-trade legislation, hate-crimes laws and other bills, as well as the current campaign to stop amnesty in the U.S. Senate.
The letter to the senators reads:
"In a few months, the American people will have a chance to speak at the polls again. Almost every analyst and every public-opinion survey suggests the electorate is angry about the direction of the country. I strongly urge you not to show contempt for the will of the people and the Constitution by confirming the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan.
"Kagan is not what Americans want and she is not what the country needs.
"At a time when federal central control is strangling the American economy, she calls for more regulatory authority not just in Washington, but for the president himself.
"At a time when American security is facing internal and external threats and our nation is still engaged in two foreign wars simultaneously, she advocates banning military recruitment on campuses because of her compulsion to see open homosexual behavior flaunted in the ranks.
"At a time when Americans have been stripped of their ability to write their own laws protecting the lives of the unborn, she advocates the creation of task forces to investigate and prosecute peaceful pro-life activities.
"At a time when Americans are recognizing the unique blessings of their Constitution, she advocates the consideration of foreign laws in shaping Supreme Court rulings.
"For all of these reasons and more we will surely learn about in the days ahead, please reject the nomination of Elena Kagan."
Source: WorldNetDaily
Date Published: July 20, 2010
