I generally don’t comment on Supreme Court nominees by Democratic presidents, since it’s not good business to be trashing judges who may be the deciding vote in some future case I have before the Court. (Yeah, a portrait of courage, I know). But I make an exception this morning to highlight Elena Kagan’s role, while a White House policy staffer, in writing what was sold to the Courts as a statement by a non-partisan medical association (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) on the medical necessity of “so-called” (the media’s favorite qualifier) partial-birth abortion. Kagan played a central role in drafting language that was used by proponents of the abortion method to convince the Courts that the method was necessary and should not be banned. Her role was never disclosed to the Courts, which relied on the very language she drafted in striking down partial-birth bans. It is an important story, and raises numerous questions about Kagan, about the abortion lobby, and the manipulation of science and the law.