Elena Kagan claiming the ‘Bork hearings were the best thing that ever happened to constitutional democracy’ will shock the sensibilities of millions of Americans. It is reveals her judicial philosophy and approach to the law, and not in a way she likely intended. Her statement gratuitously celebrates the coarsening of our civic discourse and the politics of personal destruction. To call one of the most shameful episodes in the modern history of the U.S. Senate, which irrevocably signaled the evolution of the judicial confirmation process from ‘advise and consent’ into an orgy of character assassination best described as ‘search and destroy’ is deeply irresponsible. Kagan should be asked whether these comments still reflect her views. If they do, she should not be confirmed to sit on the nation’s highest court.
