As a Florida personal injury trial lawyer, I watched with great interest the confirmation of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Is she going to be good for the interests of the injured victims of corporate negligence and greed? Or will she tow the conservative line that has allowed so many important freedoms to have been strangled out of our system of justice?
There are but few clues, since Justice Kagan did not have much of a track record as either a lawyer or a judge. She was a government lawyer and the first woman dean of Harvard Law School. Her lack of real world experience either helping or hurting people makes her hard to predict. The only glimpse of hope is that while at Harvard she prohibited the armed forces from recruiting on campus because of the military’s anti open gay and lesbian ban violated the school’s human rights policies.
Sadly, I am not very optimistic. First the lack of experience representing the injured speaks volumes to me. The time at Harvard Law School and as Solicitor General screams elitist, government, conservative. And finally, President Obama has not impressed me at all so far, and I cannot imagine that Elena Kagan will be much different.
