Obama Nominates Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court

President Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan today to replace the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court.  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.

Kagan, who has had a very diverse, exceptional career, is widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading legal minds. 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.

She also served as associate White House counsel under President Bill Clinton.  In 2003, she became the first woman to be dean of Harvard Law and, in 2009, the first woman to serve as solicitor general.

“The President has nominated someone who is extremely well-qualified and who understands the lives of ordinary Americans.  The daughter of a housing lawyer and school teacher, and herself a committed educator and public servant, Elena Kagan understands the effects of the courts’ decisions on ordinary people,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.  “We believe she will uphold the Constitution and the law to provide equal justice and protect personal freedoms for everyone in America, not just a few.”

The Coalition for Constitutional Values, of which The Leadership Conference is a member, released the following ad in support of Kagan’s nomination: