Just because Elena Kagan is white didn't stop Republicans from injecting race into her Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
The second day of the confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court was marked by some substantive dialogue, respectful banter and even an exchange of ethnic humor between the nominee and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans and Democrats alike seemed to have forgotten the previous day's tensions. But for many of us who'd sat in stunned silence while Republicans members of the committee used their opening statements to unleash an orchestrated disparagement of the record and legacy of Supreme Court justice and civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall, the wounds still felt raw.
The invocation of Marshall (35 times by Republicans) was a surprising new low, even for the shameless opportunism of modern confirmation hearings. At first it seemed astonishing as senator after senator -- Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) -- disparaged nominee Kagan's "association" with Thurgood Marshall. But the abandonment of the "Marshall as slur" tactic on day 2 suggests that the Republican senators' opening-day sucker punch may have backfired. More...
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This was a digesting stoop into into the gutter of racial baiting and racial politics. Republicans have once more played the race card.
Thurgood Marshall is one of the most important people in American history. As an attorney and head of the National Association for The Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense fund, he argued and won the landmark "Brown versus The School Board of Topeka Kansas" case which held that segregation in public education was unconstitutional. After he was later appointed as the first African American judge on the U.S. Supreme court he argued for, and was instrumental in holdings, which changed the face of America, making it a much more fair open and just society. What are these Republicans senators talking about in their criticism of Marshall ? Are they saying they, like Kentucky, Republican Senate Ran Paul, that they have problems with his positions in favor of civil rights? Do they oppose Miranda warnings? We deserve direct answers as to why these Republican senators have problems with Thurgood Marshall's record on the Supreme Court.
Thurgood Marshall is one of the most important people in American history. As an attorney and head of the National Association for The Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense fund, he argued and won the landmark "Brown versus The School Board of Topeka Kansas" case which held that segregation in public education was unconstitutional. After he was later appointed as the first African American judge on the U.S. Supreme court he argued for, and was instrumental in holdings, which changed the face of America, making it a much more fair open and just society. What are these Republicans senators talking about in their criticism of Marshall ? Are they saying they, like Kentucky, Republican Senate Ran Paul, that they have problems with his positions in favor of civil rights? Do they oppose Miranda warnings? We deserve direct answers as to why these Republican senators have problems with Thurgood Marshall's record on the Supreme Court.
John H. Armwood
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