Michael Gerson on Elana Kagan

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/05/michael-gerson-on-elana-kagan

From a column by former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson, about Elana Kagan:

Charles Fried, a prominent jurist at Harvard, says, "I do not doubt that her heart beats on the left." It could hardly be otherwise. Kagan hails from a very small ideological neighborhood -- Manhattan, Princeton University, the University of Chicago, and Harvard Law School.

This is silly. Princeton University is a big ideological neighborhood that includes everyone from Robert P. George to Peter Singer. Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek taught at the University of Chicago, as does Richard Epstein. The Harvard Law School "ideological neighborhood" produced as graduates Chief Justice John Roberts, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman, and Bush administration homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff. The "small ideological neighborhood" of Manhattan includes the headquarters of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Commentary, National Review, and the Fox News Channel. We're as skeptical of the coastal academic elites as the next New York City-based Harvard graduate, but at a certain point you have to judge people by who they are, not by where they live or went to school.

by Ira Stoll  |  May 13, 2010 at 8:35 am Related Topics:  New York, Non-Profits, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list