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Supremely Skeptical

Posted on August 6th, 2010 by Staks

Yesterday, the United States Senate confirmed this nation’s newest Supreme Court Justice, Elana Kagan. But while many of my progressive and freethinker friends are celebrating, I remain skeptical.

For starters, the Court is still middle of the road at best. We have four extremely right wing Justices who will nine times out of ten support the Religious Right on any and all issues that they bring forth. It is all but certain that they will vote to overturn Proposition 8 for example. Then you have five middle of the road Justices any one of which might support the Religious Right if a seemingly strong argument can be made.

There really isn’t a strong progressive Justice to make those strong arguments that might sway the middle of the road Justices. Kagan, is known for being very vocal as is Sotomayor, but will they make strong progressive arguments? It doesn’t seem like they will.

At best the Court is still exactly where it was under Bush and at worst, the absence of Justice Stevens weakens the Jeffersonian Wall. Stevens didn’t just rule to support separation of church and state, he was a strong advocate for that position. Hopefully Kagan will be as strong of an advocate. But that is by no means certain. In the end, time will be the ultimate judge of Obama’s Supreme Court picks.