I've gotten caught up in the way-back machine with Kagan's nomination to the Supremes. She's let herself get near exactly two controversial issues in her adult life: executive power and the Solomon Amendment (it remains to be seen if affirmative action in hiring during her tenure as HLS Dean will become a third). With so little to sink their teeth into, the press has started delving. Each news outlet seems to have found a different set of alums to talk to about the Solomon Amendment issue, and the Daily Beast reporter stumbled across me. Technically, I guess two reporters ran across me; one found my name, the other, my picture.
What Really Happened at Harvard
by Samuel P. Jacobs, May 10, 2010
For those who were involved in the fight to keep recruiters off campus, however, this line of attack comes with a good deal of irony. Kagan was not in the vanguard of this battle; she disappointed allies who thought she didn't go far enough. Boston College's Kent Greenfield, who led the plaintiffs in the case, FAIR v. Rumsfeld, that challenged the constitutionality of the Defense Department's threat to withhold funds, said that both Harvard and Kagan lagged behind other faculties. Harvard refused to join the main challenge against the government.
“Their absence in the litigation at the time was noted and hurt the litigation,” Greenfield said. (He noted that Kagan was an eloquent spokeswoman for opponents of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”)
That inaction bothered those within Harvard as well.
“It was frustrating,” said Sam Tepperman-Gelfant, a San Francisco attorney who was a leader of Lambda, the Harvard Law School LGBT organization, when Kagan was dean. “We were aware, for better or worse, that where Harvard comes out on issues like this makes a real difference. The fact that Harvard wasn't stepping up by participating in the FAIR suit or otherwise leading the fight was very frustrating.”
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