John Boehner Statement on Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s Nomination

Uploaded on March 20, 2010 by House GOP Leader All rights reserved.

GOP Leader: “Given her lack of judicial experience or time spent as a practicing lawyer, other aspects of her record must be thoroughly examined, including her troubling decision to ban United States Armed Forces recruiters from Harvard Law School.” Washington, May 10 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement today on President Obama’s decision to nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court:

“Supreme Court nominees undergo a rigorous examination for a reason. No other appointment in the federal government can be as powerful and as long-lasting.

“Solicitor General Kagan’s record must be scrutinized to ensure that she is dedicated to applying the law equally and impartially to all, not promoting a particular ideological agenda or legislating from the bench.

“Given her lack of judicial experience, or time spent as a practicing lawyer, other aspects of her record must be thoroughly examined, including her troubling decision to ban United States Armed Forces recruiters from Harvard Law School. As one liberal journalist wrote recently, ‘Barring the military from campus is a bit like barring the president or even the flag. It’s more than a statement of criticism; it’s a statement of national estrangement.’

“On this, and other issues – including the Constitutional questions arising from Washington Democrats’ new health care law - Solicitor General Kagan deserves a fair hearing on her qualifications, and her commitment to fairness, the rule of law, and interpreting the Constitution as written.”

NOTE: Peter Beinart, a senior political writer for The Daily Beast, an associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, wrote on April 19 that, “The United States military is not Procter and Gamble. It is not just another employer. It is the institution whose members risk their lives to protect the country. You can disagree with the policies of the American military; you can even hate them, but you can’t alienate yourself from the institution without in a certain sense alienating yourself from the country. Barring the military from campus is a bit like barring the president or even the flag. It’s more than a statement of criticism; it’s a statement of national estrangement.”