[ti:President Obama Nominates Elena Kagan to Supreme Court]
[ar:Steve Ember]
[al:IN THE NEWS ]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is IN THE NEWS
[00:05.77]in VOA Special English.
[00:09.15]President Obama nominated
[00:11.64]Elena Kagan to the United
[00:14.03]States Supreme Court this week.
[00:16.17]She would replace retiring
[00:18.56]Justice John Paul Stevens
[00:21.00]on the nine-member Court.
[00:23.34]BARACK OBAMA:"I have selected
[00:24.48]a nominee who I think embodies
[00:26.07]that same excellence, independence,
[00:29.11]integrity and passion for the law."
[00:32.39]If confirmed by the Senate,
[00:34.58]the fifty-year-old Kagan
[00:36.67]would be the youngest justice
[00:38.81]on the current Supreme Court.
[00:40.85]She would be the fourth woman
[00:43.04]to ever serve on the Court.
[00:45.03]She would follow current
[00:47.22]Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg
[00:49.86]and Sonia Sotomayor as well as
[00:52.70]retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
[00:56.48]President Obama described Elena Kagan
[01:00.21]as "a trailblazer for women."
[01:03.10]She is the first woman to serve
[01:06.04]as solicitor general
[01:07.93]of the United States and earlier,
[01:10.86]as head of Harvard Law School.
[01:13.90]Elena Kagan grew up in New York City,
[01:17.78]the daughter of a lawyer and a teacher.
[01:20.57]She attended Princeton University
[01:23.75]and Harvard Law School.
[01:25.94]Miz Kagan has extensive experience
[01:29.03]in the law and government.
[01:31.71]She worked as a lawyer in the Clinton
[01:34.55]and Obama administrations.
[01:37.09]As solicitor general, she argues cases
[01:41.22]for the United States government
[01:43.31]before the Supreme Court.
[01:45.60]ELENA KAGAN:"I have felt blessed
[01:46.89]to represent the United States
[01:48.54]before the Supreme Court,
[01:50.23]to walk into the highest court
[01:52.22]in this country when it is deciding
[01:54.47]its most important cases,
[01:55.91]cases that have an impact
[01:58.10]on so many people's lives."
[01:59.64]But unlike the other current
[02:02.28]Supreme Court justices,
[02:03.67]she has no experience as a judge.
[02:06.92]She was nominated for an appeals court
[02:10.40]judgeship in nineteen ninety-nine.
[02:13.29]But the Senate never voted
[02:15.78]on her nomination.
[02:17.43]Republicans in the Senate say
[02:20.76]they will ask about her lack
[02:23.20]of judicial experience
[02:25.04]during confirmation hearings.
[02:27.43]Several Supreme Court justices
[02:30.67]throughout history have had
[02:33.12]no earlier experience as a judge.
[02:36.40]Yet Miz Kagan would be the first
[02:39.78]in almost forty years.
[02:41.87]She may also face opposition
[02:45.41]for an action she took
[02:47.35]while dean of Harvard Law School.
[02:50.48]She briefly barred military recruiters
[02:54.47]from using law school facilities.
[02:57.45]She said the policy of barring homosexuals
[03:02.28]from openly serving in the military
[03:05.36]violated the university's policy
[03:08.60]against sexual discrimination.
[03:11.58]Elena Kagan is Jewish. If confirmed,
[03:15.67]she would join two other Jewish justices
[03:19.40]and six Roman Catholics.
[03:22.44]There would be no Protestant justices
[03:25.53]for the first time
[03:27.22]in the Supreme Court's history.
[03:29.61]Protestants are the country's
[03:32.15]largest religious group.
[03:34.14]Legal experts consider Elena Kagan
[03:38.57]a moderate nominee.
[03:40.71]They say this should help her
[03:43.64]in the confirmation process.
[03:45.93]Democrats control fifty-nine
[03:49.27]of the one hundred votes in the Senate.
[03:52.35]No date has been set for confirmation
[03:55.89]hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
[03:58.77]However, President Obama and Democrats
[04:03.05]in the Senate hope to have Elena Kagan
[04:06.39]confirmed in the next few months.
[04:08.83]Then she could take her seat
[04:11.37]on the Supreme Court
[04:12.87]when it meets in October.
[04:15.01]And that's IN THE NEWS
[04:17.74]in VOA Special English,
[04:20.99]written by Brianna Blake.
[04:23.28]Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts
[04:27.56]of our programs are at 51voa.com.
[04:32.83]I'm Steve Ember.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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