With President Obama announcing Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to fill Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Americans are demanding a nominee that stands with working families over corporations. According to a new poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, 53% of likely voters agree that “too often, this Supreme Court favors big corporations over individuals”. Additionally, by a 57% to 37% margin voters want the Senate to “focus on issues like the nominee’s understanding of the impact legal decisions have on the lives of everyday Americans.” And what that means is that the “nominee will be fair so that individuals and families get an impartial hearing and not give preferential treatment to powerful individuals and big corporations.”
That’s precisely President Obama’s reasoning for choosing Kagan. As he said at the announcement this morning: An “understanding of law, not as an intellectual exercise or words on a page, but as it affects the lives of ordinary people, has animated every step of Elena’s career — including her service as Solicitor General today. During her time in this office, she’s repeatedly defended the rights of shareholders and ordinary citizens against unscrupulous corporations.”
That is the role that Justice Stevens has filled. As the Supreme Court has become increasingly corporate, Stevens has served as the people’s voice. In Ledbetter (2007), Justice Stevens was in the minority in defending women’s right to challenge discriminatory pay once she realizes the discrimination. In Gross (2009), Stevens stood on the side of elderly employees to ensure that their age cannot be used in anyway to discriminate against them, even if one of several factors. And in Hoffman Plastic (2002), Stevens was on the side of an immigrant fired worker who was refused back pay after being illegally fired because he was an undocumented alien (which the company knew before employing him). And these are only a sampling.
In a new report, People for the American Way Foundation, lays out case after case inwhich the court’s corprate right-wing are undermining working families. Now more than ever, Elena Kagan needs to be the Supreme Court Justice Americans want her to be, President Obama claims she will be, and Justice Stevens was.
