WASHINGTON – The White House has touted Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s tenure as the dean of Harvard Law School as evidence of her practicality and ability to work across ideological lines. Others view her record there through a different lens: one sorely lacking in racial inclusion.
A chorus of black commentators and civic leaders has begun expressing frustration over Kagan’s hiring record as Harvard dean. From 2003 to 2009, 29 faculty members were hired: 28 were white and one was Asian American.
CNN pundit Roland Martin posted a column slamming Kagan’s record on diversity as one that a “white Republican U.S. president” would be criticized for.
“There would be widespread condemnations of Republicans having no concern for the non-white males in America,” he wrote.
Black civic leaders discussed their concerns Tuesday with White House officials, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Afterward, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Jarrett had described the role civil rights groups could play in supporting future nominees for solicitor general and district and appellate court judges.
Kagan’s nomination, Sharpton said, “is already made, and most of us are inclined to support it.”
On Sunday, members of a coalition of black women sent a letter to President Obama expressing both their concerns about Kagan, now U.S. solicitor general, and disappointment that a black woman was not chosen for the nation’s highest court.
“Our trepidation regarding (Solicitor) General Kagan is premised on the lack of a clearly identifiable record on the protection of our nation’s civil rights laws,” reads the letter, which was signed by Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Elise Scott of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and 26 others.
The White House has pushed back against the notion that Kagan hasn’t been racially sensitive in a statement last week to civil rights lawyers and reporters, according to Salon.com, which first reported the concerns.
The memo, a copy of which was obtained by PostPolitics, emphasizes that Kagan did not have the final say in hiring decisions at Harvard, where such decisions are made by a committee.
The memo also argues that Kagan made other appointments and promotions that enhanced the faculty’s diversity, including moving two minority professors to tenured positions. Three of the 12 clinical professors hired were minorities.
Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, who worked with Kagan while she was dean, went further, saying that the raw hiring numbers at the law school provide a skewed picture of her full commitment to diversity.
“She reached quite broad and deep in trying to ensure that diverse candidates were in the pool,” he said. “There has never been a doubt in my mind about her commitment to diversity.”
