Kagan Botches Oral Argument In Supreme Court Appearance At Citizens United Lawsuit

RealClearPolitics ^ | 5-10-2010 | Hot Air

[raybbr]

Hot Air explains how Solicitor General Elena Kagan muffed her argument in front of the Supreme Court on the Citizens United v. FEC case: In fact, the crux of the case was the issue of limiting expenditures as an expression of political speech, not contributions. Kagan started off her argument by misconstruing the issue and then offering a factually incorrect reading of precedent. Both Scalia and Kennedy objected to it before Kagan even had time to get the argument completed, although as the transcript notes, she didn’t pay much attention to them.

Transcript below:

ORAL ARGUMENT OF ELENA KAGAN

ON BEHALF OF THE APPELLEE GENERAL KAGAN: Mr. Chief Justice and may it please the Court:

I have three very quick points to make about the government position. The first is that this issue has a long history. For over 100 years Congress has made a judgment that corporations must be subject to special rules when they participate in elections and this Court has never questioned that judgment.

Number two -

JUSTICE SCALIA: Wait, wait, wait, wait. We never questioned it, but we never approved it, either. And we gave some really weird interpretations to the Taft-Hartley Act in order to avoid confronting the question.

GENERAL KAGAN: I will repeat what I said, Justice Scalia: For 100 years this Court, faced with many opportunities to do so, left standing the legislation that is at issue in this case — first the contribution limits, then the expenditure limits that came in by way of Taft-Hartley — and then of course in Austin specifically approved those limits.

[freekitty]

Is this payback for losing in the courts?

[dfwgator]

I haven’t gotten it lately, either.

[Lancey Howard]

[American Constitutionalist]

Mark Levin for Supreme Court Justice

[freekitty]

Obama so far is batting a thousand. Neither candidate is qualified to be near the Supreme Court; just as he isn’t.

This what you get when you elect bottom of the barrel scum buckets.

[Oldpuppymax]

And Orrin Hatch will welcome “her” with open arms, gush over her brilliance and, of course, vote to confirm.

[madinmadtown]

The Hot Air piece is very interesting. The sitting Justices, right and left, with the exception of the “wise Latina” won't forget that she was unprepared for the Citizens United, nor that she did not understand the basic principles of the case. I was at the Supreme Court during the last session and it seemed to me that the other Justices really gave the “wise Latina” the cold shoulder. She seemed to be talking only to hear herself talk and it was not pertinent to the issues at hand. The danger will be that the “wise Latina” and Kagan will form a coalition of ill-informed, ill-prepared, ideologues that have no use for the Constitution and no ability to understand basic American concepts and no ability to think beyond the moment without a regard for the consequences of the future.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Whatever she may or may not have botched, there is definitely something fishy going on here.

[Jaxter]

Here you go..

[refreshed]

John Kyl, my illustrious senator apparently already has practically.

[mojitojoe]

She is a bossy, her way or the highway, horse’s ass.

[mojitojoe]

Oh yes she can be worse, and she’s MUCH younger so we can have her for about 40 years if she’s lucky.

[Secret Agent Man]

Seriously, that was not coincidence.

[70th Division]

what we have here is a light weight heavy weight.

[Danae]

NOT EVEN REMOTELY QUALIFIED!!!!!!!!!!

[hal ogen]

Maybe the only saving grace is that she apparently eats a lot. Maybe diabetes will slow her down.

[Bobby_Taxpayer]

Her an the “wise lantio” woman. What a pair! Who next? Bill Aires? PUPPETS!!

[Jewbacca]

Undoubtedly, Senator Graham and Kagan have seen each other at the same gay night clubs.

[thouworm]

Family Background

Mom Gloria taught public school's best and brightest at Hunter College Elementary School;

dad Robert Kagan Sr

*** Tenant lawyer with the real estate law firm of Kagan & Lubic
*** Robert Kagan Sr obit

brother, Irving Kagan is an Hunter College High School alumnus and veteran teacher in the Social Studies department.

brother, Marc Kagan is a teacher at the Bronx High School of Science
World History - Sophomores / Seniors

SOURCE

Marc Kagan was a transit worker and union reformer in Transport Workers Local 100. Marc Kagan was one of former Local 100 leader Roger Toussaint's top aides until the two had a falling out in 2003. That's par for the course for the Upper Left Side, where if you can't launch two feuds before lunch, the day's a waste.

Marc Kagan became a teacher and he's no less a fierce supporter of union rights in his new union. In a letter in last week's Chief-Leader, he takes a swipe at schools chancellor Joel Klein's notion that seniority rules shouldn't apply to upcoming teacher layoffs. He goes on to offer a full-throated defense of unionism...

SOURCE

[ZULU]

Gomer Pyle a gay too? Amazing. Maybe that is what is wrong with him.