NPR's Nina Totenberg had a fascinating story about our Solicitor General, Elena Kagan. And while the issue of religion didn't come up, a peripheral concern did: how do you balance personal views with judicial responsibilities as advocate for the United States in the nation's highest court?
In her visible role as the government's chief advocate in the Supreme Court, she says she will defend any statute or government action "as long as there is a colorable argument to be made," meaning as long as there is a plausible argument. That is her duty, she says, even if she personally doesn't agree with the policy she is defending. . .
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"I think that if there are positions that you can't argue … then the responsibility is probably to resign," she says. "If one's own conscience is opposed to the requirements and responsibilities of the job, then it's time to leave the job."But just what Elena Kagan's core beliefs are is something that seems to elude even those who know her well and have worked with her. Said one of her former colleagues at Harvard, an avowed fan, "Elena is the single most competitive and most inscrutable person I have ever known."
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Asked what her constitutional values are, Kagan replies that right now she is solicitor general, "and what my constitutional values are are wholly irrelevant to the job, and so neither you nor anyone else will know what they are."
Speculation included Kagan as a potential successor to former Justice Souter when he stepped down from the bench, and she will likely make short lists again if and when President Obama nominates another to the Supreme Court.
