Kagan, Elena, 1960-

<p>Elena Kagan, (born April 28, 1960, New York, New York, U.S.), associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2010. She also was the first woman to serve as U.S. solicitor general (2009–10).</p>

<p>Kagan, the daughter of Robert Kagan, a lawyer, and Gloria Gittelman Kagan, an elementary school teacher, was raised in New York City. She received a B.A. in history from Princeton University in 1981 and then studied on a fellowship at the University of Oxford, where she received an M.Phil. in 1983. Afterward she attended Harvard Law School, where she was awarded a J.D. in 1986. Upon receiving her law degree, Kagan spent several years clerking, first for Abner Mikva, who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then for Thurgood Marshall, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

<p>Kagan spent a few years in private practice in Washington, D.C., before becoming a law professor at the University of Chicago (where the future U.S. president Barack Obama also taught). Plucked out of academia by Pres. Bill Clinton, she served as associate White House counsel (1995–96) and then as deputy assistant (1997–99) to Clinton on his Domestic Policy Council. In 1999 Clinton appointed Kagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled no hearings on her nomination. Future chief justice of the United States John G. Roberts was subsequently nominated to the post after George W. Bush became president.</p>

<p>Thereafter she returned to academia at Harvard Law School, where she taught administrative law, constitutional law, and civil procedure and in 2003 was appointed dean (by Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers, who went on to serve in the Obama administration), overseeing fund-raising, improving student life, and developing a reputation as a pragmatist able to reduce tension among Harvard’s notoriously fractious law faculty. In 2009 she was appointed by Obama to serve as the U.S. solicitor general; she was confirmed (61–31) by the U.S. Senate on March 19, becoming the first woman to occupy the post.</p>

<p>On May 10, 2010, Kagan was nominated by Obama to replace retiring justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of her reputation for reaching out to conservatives—she had recruited several conservative professors at Harvard, hosted a dinner honouring conservative justice Antonin Scalia, and received a standing ovation from the conservative Federalist Society—some liberals feared that she might not be a reliable vote for the court’s liberal minority, though she was a passionate advocate of civil rights, including gay rights. Kagan was confirmed (63–37) by the Senate in August 2010.</p>

<p>Elena Kagan grants the court a new perspective, based on her prowess with technology and pop culture. She was born in New York City, New York on April 28, 1960. As the daughter of an elementary school teacher and a housing attorney, she developed an interest in both academics and law at a very young age. Even as early as her high school yearbook, she is pictured dressed with a robe and gavel, accompanied by a quote from a Supreme Court justice. Kagan attended Hunter College High School and served as the president of the student government. In 1977, Kagan earned acceptance to Princeton University. She majored in history for the purpose of later attending law school and was also an editor of The Princetonian. She graduated summa cum laude in 1981, earning a fellowship from Princeton that enabled her to attend Worcester College in Oxford, England. There she earned her master’s degree in philosophy in 1983.</p>

<p>Kagan returned to the United States to attend Harvard Law School. Here, she utilized her past editing experience to rise to the position of supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. Kagan excelled academically at Harvard as well, graduating magna cum laude in 1986. Post-graduation, Kagan clerked for Judge Abner Mikva at the U.S. Court of Appeals level. The following year, she clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. After a brief foray into election politics supporting presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, Kagan returned to work in the law as an associate at the private law firm Williams and Connolly.</p>

<p>Three years later, Kagan returned to academia, this time as a professor. She began teaching at University of Chicago Law School in 1991. She worked there for four years, leaving only at the request of President Bill Clinton, who invited her to be his associate counsel. Kagan received two major promotions during her four years at the White House. First, she was appointed Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. Soon after, she was appointed Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council. Clinton tried to promote her once more before he left office, but the Senate did not confirm Kagan’s nomination to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. As a result, Kagan returned once more to the ivory tower of academia in 1999. She started as a visiting professor at Harvard Law. In 2001, she was given full professor status, but Kagan climbed so far and so quickly up the ladder that she became the dean of Harvard Law School in 2003, a mere two years later. She served as the dean for five years before a second president called upon her legal mind. After Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, he appointed Kagan to be the first female solicitor general, and in 2009, the Senate confirmed her nomination. The following year President Obama nominated her as Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ replacement. The Senate confirmed her nomination, and Kagan began her career as a judge at the highest court in the land.</p>

<p>Kagan added a diverse viewpoint as the youngest sitting justice and the only sitting justice with no prior judicial experience. This allowed for a more pragmatic approach to the law. She joined Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor as the ladies of the court, putting three female justices together on the court for the first time in history. Kagan’s opinion-writing is scarce in comparison to some of her colleagues. She was forced to recuse herself frequently in her early years on the court, as a result of having worked as President Clinton’s counsel. Kagan also rarely writes concurring opinions, as it takes away from the consensus of the court, a quality that Kagan is known for attempting to bolster. Kagan, a longtime comic book fan, is responsible for the very whimsical majority opinion in <i>Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment</i>. The patent-focused decision was peppered with Spiderman references, even going so far as Kagan citing a Spiderman comic. Since then, Kagan has garnered a reputation for being the justice most in touch with pop culture and technology. Kagan also joined the majority in two historic decisions in 2015. The first was <i>King v. Burwell</i>, where the court held that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional. The second was <i>Obergefell v. Hodges</i>, where the Supreme Court declared that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right. Her alignment with the majority in this case surprised some, because Kagan made a statement during her confirmation hearings that said she did not believe same-sex marriage was a federal and constitutional right.</p>

<p>Elena Kagan (born April 28, 1960) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama in May 2010, and confirmed by the Senate in August of the same year. She is the fourth woman to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court.</p>

<p>Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from Princeton University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she clerked for a federal Court of Appeals judge and for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as Associate White House Counsel, and later as policy adviser under President Bill Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its first female dean.</p>

<p>In 2009, Kagan became the first female Solicitor General of the United States. President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy arising from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens. The United States Senate confirmed her nomination by a vote of 63 to 37. She is considered part of the Court's liberal wing, but tends to be one of the more moderate justices of that group. She wrote the majority opinion in Cooper v. Harris, a landmark case restricting the permissible uses of race in drawing congressional districts.</p>