Senate Proceeding on Aug 4th, 2010 :: 3:30:20 to 3:45:55
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3:30:17 to 3:30:37( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ensign: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. ensign: mr. president, i rise today to address the nomination of solicitor general elena kagan to the supreme court of the united states. this nomination of ms. kagan has stirred up an old debate in our

3:30:20 to 3:45:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Ensign

3:30:38 to 3:31:00( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: country. there are some that say that our constitution is outdated and that the intent of our founders, when drafting it, is no longer relevant. however, i am of the belief that the united states constitution is the very foundation of our country, and its words and the written intent of our frars

3:31:01 to 3:31:25( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: are the cornerstone of our freedoms. our liberty, and our protection from radical actions and ideas. alexander hamilton addressed this very issue when he said that, i'm quoting -- our founders clearly revead their central purpose was defending america's rights and liberties

3:31:26 to 3:31:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: against encroachment. particularly by an overbearing national government. the supreme court's major purpose is preventing such overstepping. that requires following the constitution as the highest law of the land, in fact as well as on paper, because as george mason put it, "no free

3:31:49 to 3:32:09( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: government or the blessings of liberty can be preserved to any people but by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." if we are to be true to our heritage, the coming supreme court nomination debate must focus on those principles. it is with these words from alexander hamilton that i have thoroughly considered

3:32:10 to 3:32:30( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: ms. kagan's qualification and fitness to serve as the next supreme court justice of the united states. and specifically, whether ms. kagan will uphold the written word of the united states constitution. and the intent of the founding fathers, or will she twist it to fit a favored political outcome?

3:32:31 to 3:32:51( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: i had the great privilege of sitting down with solicitor general kagan in my office a few weeks ago, and i, like most who have sat down with her and met with her, was very impressed by her intelligence and her poise. there is no question that she has vast knowledge of the law which stems from years of working as a supreme court law

3:32:52 to 3:33:14( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: clerk and advisor to president clinton, dean of the harvard law school and through her current position as solicitor general. when i asked -- when i had the opportunity to ask miss kagan ms. kagan about her views on the founder's inte of the second amendment, she informed me that although

3:33:15 to 3:33:38( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: she had read much signals, legal analysis regarding the second amendment, she had never studied its history or its origin. certainly, this statement was surprising to me, especially given her documented history of hostility toward the second amendment. this hostility became apparent for the first time as a law clerk f justice thurgood

3:33:39 to 3:33:59( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: marshall when she said i'm not sympathetic to an individual's argument that the d.c. handgun ban violated his second amendment rights. well, i have been rather vocal on this issue and i have advocated strongly against the district of columbia's denial of this fundamental right to law-abiding citizens.

3:34:00 to 3:34:24( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the case that ms. kagan was unsymp lee sandich, an african-american business owner who was arrested and convicted in d.c. for possessing ammunition and an unregistered pistol without a license. the time he faced up to ten years in prison, but he received a suspended sentence of

3:34:25 to 3:34:45( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: probation and a $150 fine. mr. sandich's second amendment claim that ms. kagan car little for challenge the same restrictive d.c. gun control law that was struck down by the supreme court in 2007 heller decision. in this instance, i believe that ms. kagan allowed for her personal beliefs and emotions to

3:34:46 to 3:35:08( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: cloud the meaning of the united states constitution, since she apparently did not care to look to the founders' intent or cite legal precedent. her lack of sympathy for gun owners and gun rights was again apparent during her years in the clinton white house where she co-authored twoolicy memos in

3:35:09 to 3:35:30( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: 1998 that advocated for white house events and policy announcements on various gun proposals, including legislation requiring background checks for all secondary market gun purchases, a gun tracing initiatives and a call for new gun design that can only be shot by an authorized adult.

3:35:31 to 3:35:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: ms. kagan also played a role in an executive order that required all federal law enforcement officers to install lox on their weapons. when it comes to the second amendment, i bieve that ms. kagan shows a blatant disregard for the united states constitution and a feigned ignorance for the intent of our founders when crafting this amendment.

3:35:53 to 3:36:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: however, this is not -- this has not deterred her from providing advice to her superiors on an issue that she goes to great lengths to nullify. unlike ms. kagan, my colleagues and i, along with millions of americans, have studied the intent of our founders in regards to the second amendment.

3:36:14 to 3:36:36( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the founders look to the writings of prominent philosophers when debating the importance of the right to keep and bear arms, to protect the country, this country from tyranny and from a governing class that had a history of propensity for oppression. the second amendment was drafted to address an issue of trust,

3:36:37 to 3:36:58( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: protection, and most of all to establish individual rights over the central government. james madison wrote in the federalist paper 46 that the constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which americans possess over people of almost every other nation, where

3:36:59 to 3:37:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the governments are afraid to trust people with arms. st. george tucker, the first commentator on the constitution, wrote in 1803 that the second amendment was the true palladium of liberty and that the

3:37:20 to 3:37:40( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: self-defense is the first law of nature. in most governments, it has been the study of rulers to combine the right within the narrowest limits possible. wherever standing armies are kept up and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited.

3:37:41 to 3:38:01( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. so ms. kagan has stated when asked whether she personally believes that there is a pre-existing right to self-defense before the constitution, she said she didn't have a view of what natural rights independent of the constitution -- of what are

3:38:02 to 3:38:23( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: natural rights. ms. kagan's shockin admission upholds my conclusion that she does not believe that the second amendment codifies with the beliefs of our founders who fervently believed the right to keep and bear arms was a natural right. ms. kagan's failure to study the history surrounding the second amendment is in stark contrast

3:38:45 to 3:39:06( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: thoroughly insulting. when asked what specific subjects or legal trends wod you like harvard to reflect, ms. kagan foremost, international law, she said. we should be making clear to our students the great importance of knowledge about other legal systems around the world. for 21st century law schools,

3:39:07 to 3:39:27( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the future lies in international and comparative law, and that is what law schools today ought to be focusing on. that was her direct quote. her decision to not educate american law students the cornerstone of american freedom, the united states constitution, allows harvard law students to graduate without ever taking a

3:39:28 to 3:39:49( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: course in constitutional law, united states constitutional law. this, i feel, demonstrates her willingness to set aside the core principles of our democracy in favor of good ideas for an outcome favorable to her political beliefs. in fact, ms. kagan need to look no farther than the declaration of independence to understand

3:39:50 to 3:40:10( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: our founders' intents in regard to our second amendment when they wrote, "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of

3:40:11 to 3:40:32( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: happiness. happiness." i am of a belief that our constitution is what helps make this country the best in the world, and it's what stands between the united states of america and every other country on earth. ms. kagan's penchant for political activism was showcased in her treatment of military recruiting during her tenure as dean of the harvard law school

3:40:33 to 3:40:54( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: and her decision to ban military recruiters from campus over objectionso the don't ask/don't tell policy. as dean of the harvard law school, ms. kagan barred the military from the campus recruiting office. even as our troops risked their lives in two wars overseas that

3:40:55 to 3:41:15( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: stem from the deadliest terror attack on american oil that happened on september 11, 2001. she did so in defiance of the federal law, called the solomon amendment, which requires that the military receive access at least equal to that of other employers.

3:41:16 to 3:41:36( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: in fact, solomon's explicit equal access clause passed this chamber unanimously in 2004, one month before ms. kagan began blocking recruiters, and despite a clear record on this issue, ms. kagan testified during her hearing that the military had full, excellent and even complete access during her

3:41:37 to 3:41:57( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: tenure as dean of the law school. documents from the pentagon, however, demonstrate that recruiters were stonewalled and that banning them from the recruitment office was tantamount to chaing and locking the front door of the law school. duri this contentious period, she filed briefs, spoke at

3:41:58 to 3:42:18( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: protests, and sent campuswide emails attacking the government policy. given ms. kagan's fierce opposition to the don't ask/don't tell policy, in her hearing for solicitor general, she was specifically asked whether she would be able to set aside her personal political views and defend the law. she testified she would defend the law with bigger.

3:42:19 to 3:42:40( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: however, a review of her law reveals something very different. as solicitor general, she chose not to challenge a ninth circuit ruling that significantly damaged and undermined the don't ask/don't tell policy. it is my belief thaty negligenting to do this, she failed in her duty as solicitor general and violated the pledge that made -- she made to the united states senate. i wish i could say that her

3:42:41 to 3:43:02( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: history o but we need only to look back to her work as advisor to the clinton administration to see a demonstrated proclivity to inject progressive views and an activist agenda into all of her work, a trait that i am afraid she is not unlikely to abandon

3:43:03 to 3:43:25( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: if confirmed. ms. kagan's proclivity toward judicial activism is best highlighted in her inability to express a limit on the federal government's power. at her hearings, she was unable to identify a single meaningful limit, a single meaningful limit on federal government power under the commerce clause. as the federal government

3:43:26 to 3:43:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: continues to expand, both in scope and size, we need justis who recognize and are willing to enforce the limitations that the constitution places on this federal government. given that ms. kagan apparently does not recognize those limitations, it is clear that she would not enforce them. as a supreme court justice,

3:43:49 to 3:44:09( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: ms. kagan is likely to rule in favor of the government as opposed to enforcing the vital role that the supreme court plays in keeping this overreaching arm of the government in check. so after thoroughly studying ms. kagan's record and after questioning her on my many concerns, i feel that i must

3:44:10 to 3:44:31( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: remind ms. kagan on the intent of our founding fathers when establishing the united states as the world's leading democracy and symbol of freedom throughout this world. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty

3:44:32 to 3:44:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: and the pursuit of happiness. if confirmed as a supreme court justice, i fear that elena kagan will be unable to set aside her personal beliefs and uphold even these most basic tenets of the united states of america. i believe her reign as a supreme court justice will lead to the interpretation of international laws over united states constitution, will lead to a

3:44:53 to 3:45:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: great assault on the second amendment and will be marred by precedent of court cases rather than the intent of the framers of the constitution. as the highest court in the land, the supreme court placed this vital role in keeping the overreaching arm of the federal government in check. that said, anyone nominated to sit on the bench of this court

3:45:14 to 3:45:34( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: must be willing to do the same, set aside personal politics and views and to defer to the constitution for the good of this country. while i'm impressed with her intellect and accomplishments, my meeting with miss kagan and my review of her record did little t dispel my concerns as to whether she will adhere to the framers' intent of the constitution.

3:45:35 to 3:45:55( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: miss kagan's lack of support for the united states military, demonstrated hostility toward the second amendment and her propensity toward political activism signaled to me that her role on the court will be one of liberal judicial activism. and for this reason, i will respectfully oppose her nomination to the united states