[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10155]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          UNQUALIFIED JUSTICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the new Supreme Court pick, Elena 
Kagan, has never been a judge. She's never seen a courtroom from the 
bench. She's never had a judge's responsibilities. Elena Kagan has 
never instructed a jury. She's never ruled on a point of law--any point 
of law. She has not decided even one constitutional issue. She's never 
tried a criminal case. She's never tried a civil case. She's never even 
tried a traffic case.
  We don't know whether or not she believes the Constitution is the 
foundation of American law or whether she thinks, like many, the 
Constitution constantly changes based upon the personal opinions of 
Supreme Court Justices. But either way, Elena Kagan has never had to 
make a constitutional call in a court of law in the heat of a trial.

                              {time}  1845

  She has never admitted evidence or ruled out evidence or ruled on the 
chain of custody regarding evidence. She has never made even one 
decision regarding any rule of evidence.
  She has never ruled on the exclusionary rule, the Miranda doctrine, 
an unlawful search and seizure allegation, a due process claim, an 
equal protection violation or any constitutional issue.
  She has never empaneled a jury. She has never instructed a jury on a 
reasonable doubt or sentenced a person to the penitentiary.
  She has never had to decide whether a witness was telling the truth 
or not. As a judge, she has never heard a plaintiff, a defendant, a 
victim, or a child testify as a witness. She has never made that all-
important decision of deciding whether or not a person is guilty or not 
guilty of a crime.
  She has never held a gavel in a courtroom, and she has never made any 
decision in the heat of a trial. She has never ruled on a life-or-death 
issue.
  Elena Kagan has never made a judgment call from the bench--not a 
single one. Yet, as a Supreme Court Justice, she would be second-
guessing trial judges and trial lawyers who had been through the mud, 
blood, and tears of actual trials in actual courts of law. How can she 
possibly be qualified to fill the post of a Supreme Court Justice?
  Kagan is an elitist academic who has spent most of her time out of 
touch with the real world and with the way things really are. Being a 
judge would be an exercise to the new Supreme Court nominee. She has 
read about being a judge in books, I suppose. She might even have 
played pretend in her college classroom. But she has never been a 
judge. She has never made a judicial decision, and her first one should 
not be as a member of the United States Supreme Court. She has never 
determined justice--not a single time. Yet she wants to be a Supreme 
Court Justice.
  Besides never being a judge, she has never even been a trial lawyer. 
She has never questioned a witness, argued a case to a jury, or tried 
any case to any jury anywhere in the United States. She has absolutely 
no courtroom trial experience as a judge or as a lawyer. Real-world 
experience makes a difference. Reading books about something and 
actually doing it are two completely different things.
  People's lives and livelihoods are at stake in these courtroom 
decisions. Courtroom experience is fundamental to being a judge on the 
Supreme Court. As anyone who has been through the court system can 
testify, a courtroom is a whole different world.
  Putting Elena Kagan on the United States Supreme Court is like 
putting someone in charge of a brain surgery unit who has never done an 
operation. She may be qualified for the classroom, but she is certainly 
not qualified for the courtroom. She should stay in the schoolhouse 
since she has never been in trial at the courthouse. We cannot put the 
Constitution in the hands of someone who has never had to use it in the 
trial of a real case in a real court of law.
  Elena Kagan--unqualified justice. And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________