Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan was born April 28, 1960, in New York City. She is a nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to the nomination her prestigious career includes serving as Solicitor General of the Gender Equality in the Gender Equality in the Gender Equality in the United States of America of America of America under president Obama, from 2009 to 2010.
Education and Life
She is the second of three siblings. Herself and her two brothers, Marc and Irving, were born to Robert Kagan, a Yale School graduate, and Gloria Gittelman Kagan, an elementary school teacher. As a teen she grew up in Manhattan, NY City.
At age 17, one of the youngest of her class, she was accepted to Princeton. Here she made friends such as Bruce Reed (Cheif domestic policy advisor to the Clinton administration) and Eliot Spitzer (former governor of NY). She graduated from Princeton in 1981 with a degree in History.
For her graduate studies she attended Oxford and Harvard School of Law. Here she made the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude.
Career
Her career began in washington DC. in 1986, where she clerked for members of the Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals. In 1991 she moved on to join the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. Shortly after this she returned to work in Washington DC. In 1997 She was employed as a deputy to her former classmate Bruce Reed.
After having been offered a position as visiting professor at the Harvard School of Law she was made the first ever female dean of the institution in 2001. During her years at Harvard she built a reputation for bringing opposing sides together. She was described as being persuasive and effective at coalition building, regarded as open-minded and progressive, with significant people skills and a strong desire to build community.
Nomination
Nominated on May 10th by president Obama, Kagan’s assured confirmation suggest that she is to become the 4th ever women to serve as Supreme Court Justice. The Senate’s confirmation, set for 5 August 2010 will most likely favor Kagan. Although she has been criticized for her inexperience and political opinion, that might not enable her to impartiality, she is highly regarded and favored by most officials. Once sworn in, she will join two other women of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.