{"id":286,"date":"2010-05-19T10:53:55","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T10:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html"},"modified":"2010-05-19T10:53:55","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T10:53:55","slug":"we-definitely-need-some-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html","title":{"rendered":"Kagan: Church, State and Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jay, <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I too would like to get to the bottom of all this and get<br \/>\nsome answers on what Kagan&#8217;s views truly are. I am troubled by some things that<br \/>\nI have read, and I need to know where Kagan stands on some core issues related<br \/>\nto reproductive choice and church and state separation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Over the past couple of weeks, the following facts about<br \/>\nKagan have been unearthed that I find particularly concerning: <span>&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 1987,<br \/>\nwhile serving as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, Kagan <a href=\"http:\/\/www.au.org\/media\/press-releases\/archives\/2010\/05\/senate-committee-should.html\">wrote a memo<\/a><br \/>\nadopting a strict separationist viewpoint on tax funding. She asserted that<br \/>\nreligious groups should not be able to receive public funding for certain<br \/>\nostensibly secular activities, such as offering sex education to teens. These views were reflected in Marshall&#8217;s dissenting opinion<br \/>\nin <i>Bowen v. Kendrick<\/i>. But<br \/>\nunfortunately, Kagan changed her mind on the issue, and 22 years later, during<br \/>\nher confirmation hearings for solicitor general, Kagan distanced herself from<br \/>\nthat analysis, calling it &#8220;deeply mistaken,&#8221; &#8220;utterly wrong,&#8221; and &#8220;the dumbest thing<br \/>\nI ever heard.&#8221; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a White<br \/>\nHouse aide, Elena Kagan <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/resources\/documents\/May131997memo.pdf\">co-authored a memo<\/a> in 1997 with Bruce Reed, calling on<br \/>\nPresident Bill Clinton to support a ban on late-term abortions. Then-Sen. Tom<br \/>\nDaschle had proposed an amendment that would ban these abortions except<br \/>\nwhen it was necessary to protect &#8220;grievous injury to [the mother&#8217;s] physical health.&#8221;&nbsp; Clinton was leaning toward vetoing the bill &#8211; he wanted<br \/>\nbroader protections for women&#8217;s health care. Pro-choice groups also opposed the<br \/>\namendment and the Justice Department&#8217;s Office of Legal Counsel said the ban may<br \/>\nviolate the constitutional protection under <i>Roe v. Wade<\/i>. Still, Kagan advised<br \/>\nClinton to sign the bill with the amendment. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Also during her tenure as an aide to Clinton, Kagan <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704414504575244454250606566.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth\">favored<br \/>\na measure<\/a> that provided funding to religious groups. The issue came up<br \/>\nregarding &#8220;charitable choice&#8221; provisions of the Welfare Reform Bill. Clinton<br \/>\nwanted to know what to do about the issue &#8211; as the bill stood, churches and<br \/>\nreligious groups could receive contracts and vouchers to participate in welfare<br \/>\nand other social-service programs. Kagan was asked about the status of the religious provisions<br \/>\nin the new welfare law, and she responded that she did not favor making changes<br \/>\nto the &#8220;charitable choice&#8221; provisions of the bill. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Jay, I know you probably are in favor of all these things &#8211;<br \/>\nbut realistically, it is unclear what Kagan really believes and what was done<br \/>\nfor political purposes. It troubles me that we don&#8217;t know her stance on basic<br \/>\nconstitutional issues and I hope the Senate Judiciary Committee asks some really<br \/>\ntough questions. \n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I think we should take to heart something Kagan<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/05\/12\/kagan-under-obligation-to_n_571733.html\">said<\/a> years ago. During the Ruth Bader Ginsburg<br \/>\nhearings, she critiqued the Supreme Court nomination process as a &#8220;vapid and hollow charade, in which repetition of platitudes has<br \/>\nreplaced discussion of viewpoints and personal anecdotes have<br \/>\nsupplanted legal analysis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">She demanded that the nominee be open to discussing her &#8220;understanding of the role of courts in our society, of the nature of<br \/>\nand values embodied in our Constitution, and of the proper tools and<br \/>\ntechniques of interpretation, both constitutional and statutory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Let&#8217;s hold her to those words.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;color: black;font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\"><span><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;line-height: 115%;font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><font color=\"#000000\"><span style=\"color: black;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><font size=\"3\"><span style=\"color: black\"><font size=\"3\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><span><span style=\"color: black\"><font size=\"3\"><font face=\"Times New Roman\"><span><span style=\"color: black\"><font size=\"5\" face=\"Times New Roman\">To subscribe to &#8220;Lynn v. Sekulow&#8221; click <\/font><a href=\"http:\/\/www.feedburner.com\/fb\/a\/emailverifySubmit?feedId=2290560\"><font size=\"5\" face=\"Times New Roman\">here<\/font><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span> <br \/><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay, I too would like to get to the bottom of all this and get some answers on what Kagan&#8217;s views truly are. I am troubled by some things that I have read, and I need to know where Kagan stands on some core issues related to reproductive choice and church and state separation. Over&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[242,333,51,67,278,267],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supreme-court","tag-church-state-separation","tag-elena-kagan","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-reproductive-rights","tag-u-s-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kagan: Church, State and Privacy - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kagan: Church, State and Privacy - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, I too would like to get to the bottom of all this and get some answers on what Kagan&#8217;s views truly are. I am troubled by some things that I have read, and I need to know where Kagan stands on some core issues related to reproductive choice and church and state separation. 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Sekulow","og_description":"Jay, I too would like to get to the bottom of all this and get some answers on what Kagan&#8217;s views truly are. I am troubled by some things that I have read, and I need to know where Kagan stands on some core issues related to reproductive choice and church and state separation. Over&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2010-05-19T10:53:55+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/05\/we-definitely-need-some-answer.html","name":"Kagan: Church, State and Privacy - Lynn v. 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Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}