Minnery: Kagan 'Abhors' US Military

The non-profit evangelical Focus on the Family organization is blasting President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, warning that she exhibits a 'profound abhorrence" of the military and appears to be an extreme, left-wing ideologue.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Tom Minnery, the organization's senior vice president, says Kagan is a judicial activist more interested in altering the laws than interpreting them objectively.

"First of all, she's completely out of the mainstream," Minnery told Newsmax.

Minnery cited the unanimous Supreme Court decision that struck down Kagan's efforts to ban the U.S. military from recruiting students at Harvard Law School. Kagan opposed on-campus military recruitment because of she found the military's don't ask, don't tell policy, which prohibits gay service personnel from speaking openly about their sexuality, abhorrent.

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"Very seldom do we see the Supreme Court ganging up like that against a position that is obviously out of the mainstream," Minnery said. "This profound abhorrence of the military that she has expressed is of great concern to us.

"Obviously, the military is not a land where one conducts . . . civil rights exercises," Minnery told Newsmax. "There are not many civil rights in the military. It's 'yes sir, yes mame,' do what you need to do, and salute. That she would have this position is astonishing."

Asked if he believes Kagan is a left-wing ideologue, Minnery replied: "From what we know about her, I would say that. But I would say we need to know a whole lot more about her. She is very thin on her record, it's tough to know where she is.

"What we do know about her is disturbing," Minnery said."She was asked specifically about this don't ask, don't tell policy, when her confirmation hearings for Solicitor General were held. She was asked by Sen. [Jeff] Sessions, 'Will you support that policy?' She said, 'I will support it with vigor.'

"Well, she had a chance as Solicitor General to do that, and she did not. There was a case that challenged don't ask don’t tell on the West Coast. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals out there gave a ruling that tended to undermine it, and the Justice Department decided not to appeal that to the U.S. Supreme Court. So we're very concerned about it. All signs point to some left-wing ideology," Minnery said.

Minnery added that he was disturbed by the president's remarks, upon introducing Kagan, that she would have compassion for the people impacted by the laws she would rule on.

"The people who have the compassion for the people . . . are the legislators, the people who create the laws," Minnery said. "If laws impact poorly on people, they should be changed. They should be changed by the legislators who passed those laws, not by the judges who have to dispassionately and fairly interpret those laws."

Also from that interview:

• Minnery said he is "not really" worried that, if Kagan joins the Court, it will have no Protestant justice. "The term Protestant is so broad as to lose its meaning in the context of a Supreme Court nominee, just as the term Catholic is so broad that it loses its meaning in the context of a judicial candidacy like this," he said. "What's much more important is to know what their judicial philosophy is."
• Minnery commented on a 1993 law review article by Kagan memorializing the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the nation's first African-American Supreme Court Justice, in which Kagan quoted a 1987 statement by Marshall that the Constitution as originally written was "defective." Commented Minnery: "Well, I can see where Thurgood Marshall would have those feeling coming as he did out of the Civil Rights movement, and understanding the great problems that civil rights biases inflicted on African-Americans. But nonetheless, people need to ask themselves, what is the job of a justice? To interpret laws, or to create laws? If Miss Kagan wanted to create laws, then she ought to have run for office. If she wants to interpret laws as they are written, including the Constitution, as it is written, then it is appropriate for her to be a judge."
• He said Focus on the Family is alerting its network of grassroots conservatives to oppose the nomination. "We will explain the problems with Kagan and we'll encourage people, if they agree, to raise their voices, let their voices be heard to their senators. This nomination has a long way to go yet," he said.