The Kagan confirmation: Republicans vs. Thurgood Marshall

Republicans have focused on Elena Kagan&#039;s ties to Thurgood Marshall at her confirmation hearings

(Image credit: Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

In an attempt to pin down Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Republicans have gone after another target — her former boss and personal hero, late Justice Thurgood Marshall. During the second day of Kagan's confirmation hearings, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) labeled Marshall — the lawyer responsible for victory in 1954's Brown vs. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation, and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court — "a judicial activist." And Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Marshall's legal views "do not comport with the proper role of a judge or judicial method." Clearly, the Republicans are "unable to come up with a coherent line of attack" to undermine Kagan, says Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. So they've opted for a "twisted" path that forces them to denigrate "one of the more celebrated American heroes of the 20th century." It certainly is a "curious strategy," says Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. But who knows — depending on how long Kagan's confirmation lasts, they may still "have time to make cases against Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Gandhi." Watch GOP senators speak about Marshall: