Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is getting some flak because under questioning by Sen. Tom Coburn she refused to recognize “natural rights” outside of the U.S. Constitution, presumably including those mentioned in our Declaration of Independence. The Oklahoma Republican then asked Kagan if she believes American citizens have “a fundamental right” to own firearms for self-defense, which he noted the great English jurist William Blackstone described as a “natural right.” Kagan responded by saying, “To be honest with you, I don’t have a view of what are natural rights independent of the Constitution.”

Coburn pressed, asking Kagan if her response meant “you wouldn’t embrace what the Declaration says, that we have certain God-given rights, and that among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” Kagan replied that “my job as a justice is to enforce the Constitution and the laws.” She emphasized that she was “not saying that I do not believe there are not rights pre-existing the Constitution and laws.”