May 13, 2010

Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan on Guns

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During a meeting yesterday, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) showed Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan the flintlock rifle he received as NRA's "Man of the Year," to which Kagan responded, "It's beautiful . . . It's gorgeous," reports ABC News.

Despite that friendly exchange, Kagan's record on gun rights is sparse. Never having been a judge, she has not written a judicial opinion about the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. What little she has written on the subject has been discussed in recent news stories and blog posts, as the media and firearm owners look for indications about how strongly she would support the Second Amendment if confirmed to serve on the high court.

The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reports that during the Clinton Administration Kagan helped draft a presidential directive that suspended imports of semiautomatic firearms for 120 days. On the other hand, in written answers provided to senators during her confirmation as the Obama Administration's solicitor general, Kagan indicated her support of the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision, writing "There is no question, after Heller, that the Second Amendment guarantees Americans ‘the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.’”

The following are recent articles about the Kagan nomination:

Scoring Elena: NRA Sizes Up Candidate's Record on Guns, Wall Street Journal Law Blog

Kagan Was 'Not Sympathetic' as Law Clerk to Gun-Rights Argument, BusinessWeek

Supreme Court Nominee Kagan on Guns, Examiner.com

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Categories: Government Relations, Top Stories