Supreme Court Justice in Comfortable Shoes?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 11th, 2010 4:50 am by HL
Supreme Court Justice in Comfortable Shoes?
Famed gay blogger Andrew Sullivan wants to know why no one else is publicly asking whether husbandless Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan likes girls, even though “we have been told by many that she is gay.” Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish: It is no more of an empirical question than whether she is Jewish. We know she is Jewish, and it is a fact simply and rightly put in the public square. If she were to hide her Jewishness, it would seem rightly odd, bizarre, anachronistic, even arguably self-critical or self-loathing. And yet we have been told by many that she is gay … and no one will ask directly if this is true and no one in the administration will tell us definitively. In a word, this is preposterous – a function of liberal cowardice and conservative discomfort. It should mean nothing either way. Since the issue of this tiny minority – and the right of the huge majority to determine its rights and equality – is a live issue for the court in the next generation, and since it would be bizarre to argue that a Justice’s sexual orientation will not in some way affect his or her judgment of the issue, it is only logical that this question should be clarified. It’s especially true with respect to Obama. He has, after all, told us that one of his criteria for a Supreme Court Justice is knowing what it feels like to be on the wrong side of legal discrimination. Well: does he view Kagan’s possible life-experience as a gay woman relevant to this? Did Obama even ask about it? Are we ever going to know one way or the other? Does she have a spouse? Is this spouse going to be forced into the background in a way no heterosexual spouse ever would be? Read more
Famed gay blogger Andrew Sullivan wants to know why no one else is publicly asking whether husbandless Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan likes girls, even though “we have been told by many that she is gay.”
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
It is no more of an empirical question than whether she is Jewish. We know she is Jewish, and it is a fact simply and rightly put in the public square. If she were to hide her Jewishness, it would seem rightly odd, bizarre, anachronistic, even arguably self-critical or self-loathing. And yet we have been told by many that she is gay … and no one will ask directly if this is true and no one in the administration will tell us definitively.
In a word, this is preposterous – a function of liberal cowardice and conservative discomfort. It should mean nothing either way. Since the issue of this tiny minority – and the right of the huge majority to determine its rights and equality – is a live issue for the court in the next generation, and since it would be bizarre to argue that a Justice’s sexual orientation will not in some way affect his or her judgment of the issue, it is only logical that this question should be clarified. It’s especially true with respect to Obama. He has, after all, told us that one of his criteria for a Supreme Court Justice is knowing what it feels like to be on the wrong side of legal discrimination. Well: does he view Kagan’s possible life-experience as a gay woman relevant to this? Did Obama even ask about it? Are we ever going to know one way or the other? Does she have a spouse? Is this spouse going to be forced into the background in a way no heterosexual spouse ever would be?
Related Entries
- May 9, 2010 After Religion Fizzles, We’re Stuck With Nietzsche
- May 6, 2010 Fred Branfman on ‘The Big Short’
Lingua Franca Edition
Why assassinating U.S. citizens is a bad idea, why Americans are watching fewer foreign films and how English became the international language of choice. On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies. The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. Will the Internet Kill Traditional Car Radio? THE Internet’s tentacles seem to have no limit, reaching out and strangling CDs, bookstores, newspapers and magazines. Now it has its sights set on the car radio. How English erased its roots to become the global tongue of the 21st century ‘Throw away your dictionaries!’ is the battle cry as a simplified global hybrid of English conquers cultures and continents. In this extract from his new book, Globish, Robert McCrum tells the story of a linguistic phenomenon – and its links to big money. The language divide tearing Belgium apart Belgium doesn’t exist, only Flanders and Wallonia as Dutch and French communites live apart. Americans are seeing fewer and fewer foreign films Once upon a time, when foreign-language films dominated art houses like Philadelphia’s Ritz Five, in a given week moviegoers could sample French, Italian, or Chinese fare as easily as they could at local eateries. … U. of Chicago Press’s E-Book Giveaway Wired editor Chris Anderson argues that sometimes it pays to give things away. Could that strategy help build an audience and/or a market for university-press books? Uri Avnery: A fantasy I ADMIRE Prof. John Mearsheimer. His rigorous logic. His lucid presentation. His rare moral courage. … Assassination of U.S. Muslim Cleric is Illegal, Immoral and Unwise Agents of the United States are openly trying to assassinate Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, while he is in hiding in Yemen. Despite what the apologists for assassination argue this is illegal, immoral and unwise. Methodology Change for Ph.D. Rankings [but the “more delays” hasn’t changed…] The National Research Council—responding to criticism it received in the internal peer review of its forthcoming doctoral program rankings—is changing the methodology in a few key places for the long-awaited project. …
Why assassinating U.S. citizens is a bad idea, why Americans are watching fewer foreign films and how English became the international language of choice.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.
Will the Internet Kill Traditional Car Radio?
THE Internet’s tentacles seem to have no limit, reaching out and strangling CDs, bookstores, newspapers and magazines. Now it has its sights set on the car radio.
How English erased its roots to become the global tongue of the 21st century
‘Throw away your dictionaries!’ is the battle cry as a simplified global hybrid of English conquers cultures and continents. In this extract from his new book, Globish, Robert McCrum tells the story of a linguistic phenomenon – and its links to big money.
The language divide tearing Belgium apart
Belgium doesn’t exist, only Flanders and Wallonia as Dutch and French communites live apart.
Americans are seeing fewer and fewer foreign films
Once upon a time, when foreign-language films dominated art houses like Philadelphia’s Ritz Five, in a given week moviegoers could sample French, Italian, or Chinese fare as easily as they could at local eateries. …
U. of Chicago Press’s E-Book Giveaway
Wired editor Chris Anderson argues that sometimes it pays to give things away. Could that strategy help build an audience and/or a market for university-press books?
Uri Avnery: A fantasy
I ADMIRE Prof. John Mearsheimer. His rigorous logic. His lucid presentation. His rare moral courage. …
Assassination of U.S. Muslim Cleric is Illegal, Immoral and Unwise
Agents of the United States are openly trying to assassinate Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, while he is in hiding in Yemen.? Despite what the apologists for assassination argue this is illegal, immoral and unwise.
Methodology Change for Ph.D. Rankings [but the “more delays” hasn’t changed…]
The National Research Council—responding to criticism it received in the internal peer review of its forthcoming doctoral program rankings—is changing the methodology in a few key places for the long-awaited project. …
Related Entries
- May 9, 2010 After Religion Fizzles, We’re Stuck With Nietzsche
- May 6, 2010 Fred Branfman on ‘The Big Short’
