White House to Release Kagan's Thesis, other Documents
The White House is planning on releasing Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's two college theses, according to reports, in the wake of questions about what her college work might reveal about her ideological leanings.
Right-wing blogs have pounced on the subject of the thesis Kagan wrote as an undergraduate at Princeton in 1981, entitled, "To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933." The conservative site RedState.com first published the thesis, but Princeton -- which charges $57 for a copy of the thesis, according to RedState blogger Erick Erickson -- asked for the document to be removed from the Web, citing copyright laws.
Now, however, the White House plans to make the paper available, as well as the thesis Kagan wrote at Oxford, Politico reports.
"These documents were not specifically requested by the Judiciary Committee in the questionnaire, but demonstrating our commitment to transparency, they will be made available to the committee and the public regardless," a White House official reportedly said.
The White House on Saturday also asked for the prompt release of 160,000 pages of other documents related to Kagan's career for the Senate Judiciary Committee to review. White House lawyer Bob Bauer reportedly sent a letter to the National Archives, asking for the speedy release of documents related to Kagan's work in the Clinton administration, including her e-mail.
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Newsweek's Seth Colter Walls called Kagan's Princeton thesis "an evenhanded assessment" of New York's Socialist Party in the early 20th century.
Nevertheless, after Erickson published the thesis on his site, other conservative commentators followed his lead in questioning whether the thesis proved Kagan's own inclinations toward socialism.
"This proves Elena Kagan is an open and avowed socialist," Erickson wrote. "The woman declares that socialists must stick together instead of fracture in order to advance a socialist agenda, which Kagan advocates."
The conservative-leaning Daily Caller highlights that "in her conclusion [Kagan] expressed disappointment that 'labor radicalism' had failed to gain political prominence."
Fox News host Sean Hannity said on his show, "The administration may also have been a fan of Kagan's senior thesis in which she explored the history of the socialist movement here in the U.S. So is this just another Obama radical being elevated to the highest levels of our government?"
