Elena Kagan Confirmed to Be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court

Today, the Senate voted 63-37 to confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Kagan, nominated by President Obama on May 10, will succeed Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired in June after more than 34 years on the court.

General Kagan will bring to the Court her outstanding intellect, her independence of thought, her respect for the rule of law, and her strong commitment to equal justice and civil rights. Her rich diversity of experience and her skills as a consensus builder will be a great benefit to the Supreme Court and to our justice system,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Once sworn in, Kagan will join Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor to give the nine-member court three women justices for the first time. Kagan is the fourth woman to be confirmed to the court.

Kagan has had a very diverse, trailblazing career and is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading legal minds. In her current role as solicitor general, Kagan is the primary lawyer representing the U.S. government – and therefore, the interests of the American people – before the Court.

She graduated at the top of her class from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, clerked for Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and taught constitutional and administrative law at the University of Chicago Law School. Before joining the Obama administration, Kagan was also the first woman dean of Harvard Law School.

The Leadership Conference supported Kagan’s confirmation, saying in an August 2 letter to the Senate that her record provides “compelling evidence of Kagan’s commitment to equal justice and civil rights for all, and a clear dedication to upholding our nation’s constitutional values.”