We Are Still A Few Votes Short Of Killing The Kagan Nomination

-- Time to redouble our efforts

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://gunowners.org

Tuesday, July 13, 2010


The hearings on Elena Kagan to be a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court are over.

Senate Democrats slammed them through quickly, in the same way they did ObamaCare. And, like ObamaCare, they made sure that Senate Republicans would not have the material they needed to review Kagan's record -- withholding, for example, large amounts of Clinton administration legal advice on a claim of executive privilege.

(If you missed GOA's testimony at the Kagan hearings, you can view it here: http://gunowners.org/kagantestimony .)

While much has been concealed, what we do know about Kagan is not good, as her public service has clearly shown antagonism to the Constitution and the Separation of Powers.

For example, when it became clear that the Supreme Court might strike down parts of the Brady Act (which it eventually did in 1997), Kagan suggested that President Clinton "by executive order, [might] prohibit a FFL from selling a handgun" without a certification from local police.

In other words, Kagan believed that the President could circumvent the role of Congress and to act unilaterally, without any legal authority, to impose restrictions upon the private ownership of handguns.

Not only that, Kagan drafted a memo for President Clinton suggesting a whole list of guns that could be banned by executive fiat. The Los Angeles Times reported on May 27, 2010, that: "At the time of the [1997] import ban, Jose Cerda, who worked in the domestic policy shop run by Kagan and her boss, Bruce Reed, said, 'We are taking the law and bending it as far as it can to capture a whole new class of guns.'"

Combine all of this with the fact that in 1987 Elena Kagan told her boss, Justice Thurgood Marshall, that she was "not sympathetic" to the plight of an African-American man who wanted to own a gun for self-protection because he carried large sums of cash when depositing money for the laundromat where he worked in Washington, D.C.

Elena Kagan will follow philosophically in the footsteps of Sonia Sotomayor. During her confirmation hearings, Americans were promised that Sotomayor believed the Heller case in 2008 established "that the Second Amendment right is an individual right." But in the recent McDonald case, Sotomayor joined the minority in wanting to both overturn Heller and deny that the Second Amendment protects a "fundamental" right.

So, Justice Sonia Sotomayor lied her way onto the bench. And "cagey Kagan" is doing exactly the same thing. Please make sure you take action!

ACTION: The Senate Judiciary Committee will probably be voting on the Elena Kagan nomination next week -- which means the proverbial ball is now rolling. So contact your Senators and urge them to oppose Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. And please urge your family and friends to do the same.

You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written message to your Senators.

----- Pre-written letter to Senators -----

Dear Senator:

You will be asked soon to vote up or down on Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. After reviewing just some of the evidence against her, I think the case is clear that... a vote for Kagan is an anti-gun vote.

Kagan's public service record has clearly shown antagonism to the Constitution and the Separation of Powers. Emails taken from the Clinton Library clearly bear this out.

For example, when it became clear that the Supreme Court might strike down parts of the Brady Act (which it eventually did in 1997), Kagan suggested that President Clinton "by executive order, [might] prohibit a FFL from selling a handgun" without a certification from local police.

In other words, Kagan believed that the President could circumvent the role of Congress and to act unilaterally, without any legal authority, to impose restrictions upon the private ownership of handguns.

Not only that, Kagan drafted a memo for President Clinton suggesting a whole list of guns that could be banned by executive fiat. The Los Angeles Times reported on May 27, 2010, that: "At the time of the [1997] import ban, Jose Cerda, who worked in the domestic policy shop run by Kagan and her boss, Bruce Reed, said, 'We are taking the law and bending it as far as it can to capture a whole new class of guns.'"

Combine all of this with the fact that in 1987 Elena Kagan told her boss, Justice Thurgood Marshall, that she was "not sympathetic" to the plight of an African-American man who wanted to own a gun for self-protection because he carried large sums of cash when depositing money for the laundromat where he worked in Washington, D.C.

Elena Kagan will follow philosophically in the footsteps of Sonia Sotomayor. During her confirmation hearings, Americans were promised that Sotomayor believed the Heller case in 2008 established "that the Second Amendment right is an individual right." But in the recent McDonald case, Sotomayor joined the minority in wanting to both overturn Heller and deny that the Second Amendment protects a "fundamental" right.

So, Justice Sonia Sotomayor lied her way onto the bench. And "cagey Kagan" is doing exactly the same thing.

I am sure you have seen the recent polls -- fewer than four in ten Americans want to see Kagan confirmed to the Court. I hope you will follow the will of the American people on this one, and not blindly follow the President who, himself, is at near record lows in the polls.

Sincerely,