Litigation

Kagan Played Role on Abortion Limits

By Peter Hardin

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan played a significant role in helping frame the Clinton administration’s fight against a Republican bill intended to limit abortion.

Kagan was trying to boost women’s rights and simultaneously sharpen the political message of the administration and its backers, according to newly released documents from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library described in a Bloomberg article.

When she was a lawyer working at the White House, Kagan drafted the wording aimed at narrowing a proposed ban on what opponents call “partial-birth” abortion.

According to an Associated Press article, Kagan said in a 1996 memo that prohibiting the procedure would be unconstitutional, unless there was exception for times when it was necessary to avert “serious adverse health consequences” for the mother, and she proposed legal language for that kind of exemption.

Other documents also show Kagan’s participating in helping defend Clinton from scandal claims and a sexual harassment lawsuit.

The latest release of documents was bound to trigger further debate over Kagan’s nomination to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Meanwhile, other media reports looked at different dimensions of her nomination.

A long personal profile in the Washington Post was headlined, “Kagan has many achievements, but her world has been relatively narrow.”

In the Boston Globe, an article described groups working against Kagan’s confirmation for reasons other than ultimate victory, including fundraising, recruitment and providing research aid to Republican senators.

To learn more about Kagan and the nomination process, check out Gavel Grab or Justice at Stake?s ?Replacing Justice Stevens? page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 12, 2010 (boomark / email).