Today President Obama announced his pick to fill Justice John Paul Stevens' place on the US Supreme Court -- and, whaddya know, he picked another NYC girl!
Last year it was Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor and now its Upper West Side gal Elena Kagan.
Cool. Finally a Supreme Court justice from my kneck o'the woods! She also graduated from Hunter College High School, a place where a certain relative of mine also went.
This will make three women on the Supreme Court, New York ladies all; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, appointed by President Clinton in the 1990s, is from Brooklyn.
Currently Ms. Kagan serves as the US Solicitor General and is the government's chief advocate in front of the court she will soon be joining. She was also formerly the Dean of Harvard Law School, clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, and worked in the Clinton White House. She's never been a judge before but that's only because, in the late 1990s, the Senate Republicans prevented her nomination to the Federal bench from getting a vote. It'll be interesting to see if they try to do the same thing again.
I recently heard a white male on the radio complain that, with the appointment of these two New York women to the court in the last year (a Catholic Latina and now a Jew) plus Justice Ginsberg, there's less "diversity" on the court than there used to be. Hmm? If I remember correctly, for about the first 200 years it was all white men who occupied the court. Isn't it interesting how certain people start kvetching about diversity when it's they who start feeling under-represented?
America really is changing.
Last year it was Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor and now its Upper West Side gal Elena Kagan.
Cool. Finally a Supreme Court justice from my kneck o'the woods! She also graduated from Hunter College High School, a place where a certain relative of mine also went.
This will make three women on the Supreme Court, New York ladies all; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, appointed by President Clinton in the 1990s, is from Brooklyn.
Currently Ms. Kagan serves as the US Solicitor General and is the government's chief advocate in front of the court she will soon be joining. She was also formerly the Dean of Harvard Law School, clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall, and worked in the Clinton White House. She's never been a judge before but that's only because, in the late 1990s, the Senate Republicans prevented her nomination to the Federal bench from getting a vote. It'll be interesting to see if they try to do the same thing again.
I recently heard a white male on the radio complain that, with the appointment of these two New York women to the court in the last year (a Catholic Latina and now a Jew) plus Justice Ginsberg, there's less "diversity" on the court than there used to be. Hmm? If I remember correctly, for about the first 200 years it was all white men who occupied the court. Isn't it interesting how certain people start kvetching about diversity when it's they who start feeling under-represented?
America really is changing.
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