While Justice Kagan performed duties with regard to AIDS, budget appropriations, campaign finance reform, education, health, labor, race, tobacco, Native Americans, and welfare, her most important job was the handling a lawsuit brought against President Bill Clinton by a woman who claimed then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton had sexually harassed her.
In one May 1996 memo, Kagan appeared to be more concerned with how it looked "unseemly" for the president to be represented in court by so many attorneys, but made no mention of how unseemly it was for a sitting U.S. President to be accused of bullying a defenseless low-tier employee.
In the documents submitted to the opposing counsel and to the judge in the case, Kagan had many of the attorney's names -- who worked on the case -- removed from the cover-sheets for all documents and correspondence. "While not a criminal act or even a serious breach of civil law, [Kagan's] actions in removing those names could be considered unethical. Let me put it this way, if you or I did such a thing with legal documents, the judge or judges would not act kindly towards us," said political strategist and attorney Laurence Collier-Stevenson. "Ask yourself: is this the kind of person you want passing judgement on the entire government and nation?" he asked rhetorically.
"It's amazing how the political party that claims it fights for women's rights, in order to protect a sexual predator, smeared, harassed and ridiculed any and all women who came forward to point fingers at a president some believe was -- and still is -- a predatory sociopath," Collier-Stevenson added.
President Clinton's testimony during the Paula Jones lawsuit, in which he emphatically denied a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, ended up in having the U.S. Congress, including some Democrats, voting for his impeachment in 1998. Although the House passed two articles of impeachment against Clinton, he was acquitted by the Senate.
"For all their talk about fighting for women's rights, the feckless Senators on both sides of the aisle gave Clinton a pass and allowed him to deny justice to a low-level, female employee who even the media denigrated in their haste to protect their beloved Bill Clinton," said former sex crimes detective Alicia Rose Amato.
The Democratic Party leadership was obviously grateful for Kagan's role in defending Clinton, who later was charged with perjury for his alleged deceitful answers during the civil case. Prior to the election of President Barack Obama, Kagan's name was bandied as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States if a Democratic president were elected in 2008.
When President Obama nominated Kagan, during her confirmation, which failed to garner the drama that usually follows the Supreme Court nominations made by Republicans, not one of the Senators asked her about her work for the White House in defending Bill Clinton and she was confirmed by a vote of 63 Yeas to 37 Nays.
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