DNC - Veterans and Military Families

Military Veteran Reflects on Elena Kagan as a "Fervent Advocate for Veterans"

Former Harvard Law School student and Marine Corps Captain Robert Merill recently published a piece in the Washington Post in which he praised Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan for being a "a fervent advocate for veterans."

Capt. Merrill, who currently serves as a legal adviser to a Marine infantry battalion in southern Afghanistan, provided a first-hand account that shows that as Dean of Harvard Law School, Elena Kagan was respectful of students who were veterans of the military and asserted that she was particularly concerned with the them, treating “the veterans at Harvard like VIPs.”

“Kagan's Veterans Day dinners became a tradition. During my final year at Harvard, she treated the veterans to dinner at a restaurant in Cambridge. (Military service has its perks.) Again, there was no agenda other than to thank us for our service and to ask about our military experiences. Over wine and dinner, Kagan listened attentively to our war stories. I later told her that her blunt style of leadership would have served her well in the Marines. I took to calling her "Colonel Kagan" whenever we crossed paths on campus.

“During nine years of service in the Marine Corps, I have received a fair number of thanks from friends and strangers alike. I received perhaps the most thoughtful thanks of all just before graduating from Harvard Law School: The supposedly "anti-military" Elena Kagan sent me a handwritten note thanking me for my military service and wishing me luck in my new life as a judge advocate.”

Captain Merrill also wrote that while the military was briefly barred from using the law school’s main recruitment office, recruiters had continuous access to students.

“In my opinion, Kagan's positions never affected the services' ability to recruit at Harvard. Behind the scenes, the dean ensured that our tiny HLS Veterans Association never lacked for funds or access to facilities. Recruiters simply could not use the school's Office of Career Services. Does this demonstrate an "activist" streak, as some have proclaimed? I don't think so. The school's policy against discrimination was akin to black-letter law. If anything, Kagan was an activist in ensuring that military recruiters had viable access to students and facilities despite the official ban. A Boston-area recruiter later told me that the biggest hurdle he faced recruiting at Harvard Law was trying to answer the students' strangely intellectual questions.”

Elena Kagan's intellect, integrity, judgment, and work ethic has been recognized by a diverse audience, and the veteran community is just one of many to stand by Kagan and show resounding support for her nomination to the US Supreme Court.

Read Robert Merill's full piece in the Washington Post here

Robert Diamond served as an officer in the United States Navy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. A Surface Warfare Officer by training, he was stationed onboard the guided missile destroyer USS BULKELEY (DDG-84) and completed deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

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