Like a good many bloggers and other commentators, I don't have strong feelings one way or the other about Elena Kagan, President Obama's choice to replace Justice Stevens on the Supreme Court, and that may not be a bad thing in an era in which Republicans will delay a confirmation vote for purely political reasons.
Absent a smoking gun buried deep in some closet of a life played very close to the vest, the smart money says that Kagan will be confirmed -- pretty much along party lines, of course -- while the most vociferous opposition may well come from the left and not the right.
Much of the nattering -- that Kagan has no experience as a judge as would have the daft Harriet Miers -- is without merit. The great Justice John Marshall had none, nor did guys by the name of Brandeis, Frankfurter, Warren and Rehnquist.
My big takeaway on Kagan at this relatively early date is that she hopefully will be a staunch defender of the liberal rulings of which Stevens was such a big part, which is to say that she won't be a party to the pernicious pro-business, anti-individual judicial activism of the Roberts majority.
And no, it won't matter that for the first time there won't be any Protestants on the court. What does matter -- but only a little -- is that the Ivy League lock on the high court is now complete.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
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