UI law community weighs in on Supreme Court nomination

President Barack Obama's U.S. Supreme Court Justice nomination Monday of Solicitor General Elena Kagan has gained some praise in the University of Iowa law community.

While Kagan doesn't have experience as a judge, a few professors say that fact won't affect her ability to be an effective Justice and think just the opposite may be true.

“She can cross intellectual divides and draw people together,” said professor Randall Bezanson. “She will be a very constructive Justice.”

Bezanson said he thinks her intelligence, interpretation of the law, vast experience, and ability to work with people of differing views will serve her well in the role. He noted he also thinks her work bringing together “a severely divided faculty” while Dean at Harvard Law School reflects many of those qualities.

But professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig, who studied her hiring of faculty while in that position, said she thinks Kagan's record to commitment to equal opportunity for hiring women and minorities is troublesome. She said out of 32 people hired, only seven were women and only one was a minority.

Kagan called former Justice Thurgood Marshall – known best for involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and his strong support for constitutional protection of individual rights – her personal law hero,  but Onwuachi-Willig said she worries if Kagan can become the next Justice Marshall.

“I'm cautious,” Onwuachi-Willig said. “I can't see yet if she will follow the footsteps of her hero,” Onwuachi-Willig said, stating she thinks Kagan hasn't been very vocal about her viewpoint on key legal matters. She added, however, that Kagan not previously being a judge shouldn't be viewed as a concern, but rather a benefit since she is coming from a different point of view.

Professor William Buss agreed that not being a judge shouldn't influence people's opinions, saying many famous Justices have succeeded at the job without being a judge first.

“In every way, she's clearly qualified,” he said.

As a Harvard Law graduate himself, Buss has studied some of Kagan's work and described it as even, thoughtful, and sensible and called the nomination “a fantastic pick.”

“She is very smart and very able to use her smartness in a very useful and effective way,” he said.

An article Monday on The New York Times website referred to UI Law Professor Margaret Raymond as being an old friend of Kagan. Raymond said Kagan was the only girl she knew who smoked in High School, and instead of partying, Kagan and her liked to sit on the steps on the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, according to the article.

If her nomination is confirmed by Congress, 50-year-old Kagan will become the fourth women in history of the court, and the 112th Supreme Court justice.