Scalia Defends Elena Kagan

As you must know by now, President Obama has nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the upcoming vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. Even though the Republicans probably cannot stop Kagan's confirmation, many of them are playing to their right-wing base and opposing the nomination. The problem is that Kagan has not left an extensive paper trail so they are having trouble finding grounds for their opposition.

One of the main themes they have developed for their opposition is her lack of experience as a judge. They did not seem to mind that Bush nominee Harriet Miers had no judicial experience, but for some reason they think this should disqualify Ms. Kagan.

But Kagan now has an unlikely defender on the Supreme Court -- right-wing Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia not only thinks Kagan's lack of judicial experience shouldn't disqualify her, but he actually thinks it is probably a good thing. Here's what Scalia had to say:

“When I first came to the Supreme Court, three of my colleagues had never been a federal judge. William Rehnquist came to the Bench from the Office of Legal Counsel. Byron White was Deputy Attorney General. And Lewis Powell who was a private lawyer in Richmond and had been president of the American Bar Association.”

“Currently, there is nobody on the Court who has not served as a judge --indeed, as a federal judge -- all nine of us,” he continued. “. . . I am happy to see that this latest nominee is not a federal judge – and not a judge at all.”