Do Ask, Do Tell – Whether Kagan’s Public Policies Are Improperly Dictated By Her Private Affairs.
By: Philip Jauregui
President Obama, The White House, and Elena Kagan are attempting to impose a “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” policy when it comes to the alleged private life of Kagan. The Senate and the American People should not follow this policy because the answer to the question will determine whether Ms. Kagan is merely legally incompetent, or whether she has allowed her own personal life, and her personal experiences to impact her legal decisions governing the lives of others. And that is unacceptable for any judge – especially a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Kagan’s decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard was either a horrible legal decision, or a use of her office to impose her personal views on the military. If Kagan’s anti-military decision was purely based on her understanding of the law, then she has proven herself to be legally incompetent. To be sure, not one conservative nor liberal member of the Supreme Court agreed with her ban of the heterosexual U.S. military – not even former ACLU lawyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
However, if media reports that Kagan is a lesbian are true, then her decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard has every appearance of growing from her personal preferences and practices. Obama says that he wants justices who have empathy and know what it is like to be gay. Well, it is relevant for Americans to know whether such a preoccupation of knowing how it feels to be gay, led Elena Kagan to ignore the law and ban the heterosexual military from Harvard because it conflicted with her own personal feelings and practices.
Elena Kagan calls the military’s heterosexual policy of “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell” a “moral injustice of the first order.” But Kagan and the White House have adopted the exact same policy regarding Kagan’s relationship with the American People. The White House has twice bristled with contempt when the subject of Kagan’s lesbianism was raised by reporters. The White House insists that you not “ask” and Kagan seems coached to not “tell.” But the American People have every right to ask and Kagan should tell the truth because her answer has everything to do with her record of governing others according to her own personal views without any basis in law.
Kagan called the military’s heterosexual policy a “moral injustice of the first order.” To the contrary, it would be a “moral injustice of the first order” to allow a person to join the Supreme Court who has a demonstrable record of allowing their personal opinions and conduct to influence their legal opinions that govern the rest of America. It would be improper for the Senate to gift a Supreme Court seat to a person who would use that office to declare those that she disagrees with “morally unjust.” Accordingly, it is relevant and appropriate for the American People and their Elected Representatives to ask – and for Kagan to tell - whether Kagan’s public policies are improperly dictated by her private affairs.
