Who is Elena Kagan? Get to know the Obama Supreme Court justice

• Kagan is considered one of three liberal justices on the conservative-majority court docket.
• President Barack Obama nominated Kagan in 2010.
• Kagan changed Affiliate Justice John Paul Stevens.

Greater than 20 years in the past, President Invoice Clinton nominated Elena Kagan for a spot on the federal appeals court docket. However Senate Republicans by no means took up the nomination and Kagan by no means turned a decrease court docket choose.

The failed nomination wound up placing Kagan on an unconventional path to the Supreme Court docket. The previous Harvard Legislation Faculty dean appeared resigned to by no means reaching the excessive court docket and mentioned she had mapped out a future for herself in academia. 

However then President Barack Obama appointed Kagan solicitor normal – a high position within the Division of Justice  – in 2009. A 12 months later, he picked her to fill a emptiness created by retiring Affiliate Justice John Paul Stevens. She was confirmed by the Senate in 2010, selecting up 5 Republican votes, and have become the fourth girl to serve on the Supreme Court docket. 

Right here’s what to find out about Affiliate Justice Elena Kagan. 

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Who’s Elena Kagan? 

Kagan is the 112th justice to serve on the Supreme Court docket. Previous to her nomination, Kagan was the solicitor normal, the highest Justice Division lawyer representing the federal authorities on the Supreme Court docket. The workplace is so intently intertwined with the excessive court docket that the solicitor normal is usually known as the “tenth justice.”  

How outdated is Elena Kagan? 

Elena Kagan was born on April 28, 1960, in New York Metropolis. . She is 61 as of March 2022.  

Who appointed Elena Kagan? 

Obama nominated Kagan to the Supreme Court docket in Could 2010. She was confirmed by the Senate in August 2010. 

Who did Elena Kagan change?

Kagan changed Affiliate Justice John Paul Stevens, nominated to the court docket by Republican President Gerald Ford in 1975.  Stevensdied in 2019. 

Is Elena Kagan liberal or conservative? 

Kagan was appointed by a Democratic president and is taken into account a part of the court docket’s liberal wing. She is commonly seen as extra keen to hunt a compromise than a few of her colleagues. 

How has Elena Kagan dominated? 

Kagan guidelines overwhelmingly along with her liberal colleagues. Within the 2020 time period, she sided with liberal Affiliate JusticesSonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer 87% of the time and 90% of the time, respectively, in keeping with the Harvard Legislation Evaluate. 

The place did Elena Kagan go to highschool? 

Kagan earned a bachelor’s diploma in historical past from Princeton College in 1981. She bought her regulation diploma from Harvard Legislation Faculty in 1986 after incomes a masters diploma in philosophy from Oxford College in 1983. 

How lengthy has Elena Kagan been a Supreme Court docket Justice? 

Kagan started her service on the court docket in 2010. By the tip of 2022, she can have been a justice for 12 years. 

What’s Elena Kagan’s occasion affiliation? 

Kagan is registered as a Democrat in Washington D.C., in keeping with the judicial watchdog group Repair The Court docket.  

Does Elena Kagan have a household? 

Kagan has by no means been married and he or she doesn’t have kids. She has two brothers, Marc and Irving Kagan.

How tall is Elena Kagan? 

Kagan’s 5-foot 3-inch stature earned her the nickname of “Shorty” from the late Affiliate Justice Thurgood Marshall, for whom she clerked. 

Is Elena Kagan Jewish? 

Elena Kagan is the second Jewish girl to serve on the Supreme Court docket after the late Affiliate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. When Affiliate Justice Stephen Breyer retires, she will probably be the one Jewish member of the Catholic-majority court docket.

Was Elena Kagan ever a choose? 

Kagan is the one present justice on the Supreme court docket to not have prior expertise as a choose. She turned dean of Harvard Legislation Faculty in 2003, earlier than leaving the place in 2009 to grow to be solicitor normal below Obama. She was the primary girl to serve in each positions. She additionally served in varied roles within the Clinton administration from 1995 to 1999. 

What main circumstances has Elena Kagan determined? 

Kagan voted in 2015 to deem state legal guidelines that ban same-sex marriage unconstitutional in Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2018, Kagan joined the dissenting liberal justices in Trump v. Hawaii after the conservative majority voted to uphold Trump’s journey ban on majority-Muslim international locations. 

What’s considered one of Kagan’s most important opinions? 

Kagan in 2019 wrote the 5-3 majority opinion in Madison v. Alabama, which prohibited the execution of an inmate who couldn’t perceive their dying sentence attributable to dementia or psychosis. 

Contributing: John Fritze