Supreme Court Nominations

69 Law Deans Endorse Kagan

The deans of more than a third of the nation’s law schools have endorsed President Barack Obama’s nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for a seat on the United States Supreme Court. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that was dated last week and released by the White…

Jun 15, 2010 9:01 PM CDT

Details of Kagan’s Life Emerge: Devoted to Law, Favoring Opera and Hamburgers

After Sonia Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, news stories probed how she spent her money, her workaholic ways and her suffering romantic relationships. Now the focus is on Elena Kagan, nominated to replace Justice John Paul Stevens. Her world, according to the Washington Post, is a narrow…

Jun 10, 2010 12:27 PM CDT

Kagan Went to Harvard After Chicago Hesitated to Hire Her

Formerly a tenured law professor at the University of Chicago, Elena Kagan wanted to return to teach there in 1999 after a stint at the White House with President Bill Clinton. But the faculty of the law school was hesitant to vote to approve her return, wondering if she was…

Jun 1, 2010 12:20 PM CDT

Questions for Kagan

Appearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this month, Solicitor General Elena Kagan presents a candidate as polished as can be: former Harvard law dean, highly regarded professor, a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall—a top-tier resumé showing a talent for consensus-building. Since she criticized the confirmation process in a 1995 law review article as “a vapid and hollow charade,” we asked several experts what questions could be posed to Kagan to invigorate the process.

Jun 1, 2010 7:59 AM CDT

SG: Bureau of Prisons Supplied Wrong Info to SCOTUS in Landmark Juvenile Case

Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal has notified the U.S. Supreme Court that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons supplied incorrect information about six juvenile prisoners that was cited in a recent landmark decision on juvenile sentencing. The Supreme Court ruled on May 17 in Graham v. Florida that a sentence of…

May 28, 2010 1:48 PM CDT

O’Connor Confesses She Worried Five Years at Home Would Wreck Her Career

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor had a problem when she was starting out in her legal career: Her baby sitter had quit, and she had three young children at home. O’Connor spent the next five years at home raising the children. A recent article in the New York Times magazine…

May 27, 2010 4:35 PM CDT

Scalia Says He’s Glad Kagan Isn’t a Judge

All nine of the current justices on the U.S. Supreme court were federal judges before their elevation, but the nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens has no such experience. And that’s a good thing, according to Justice Antonin Scalia. In a speech sponsored by Catholic University’s Columbus School of…

May 27, 2010 11:26 AM CDT

Kagan’s Dealings with Harvard Prez Show ‘Intense Ambition and Deft Political Skills’

When Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan became a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 1999, she quickly warmed to the job, earning high marks from students for her wit and energy. Less than four years later, she was offered the deanship. The New York Times reports on Kagan’s quick…

May 26, 2010 11:53 AM CDT

Elena Kagan Was Upset by Her B-Minus in Torts

One of Elena Kagan’s classmates counseled her not to worry when she received a B-minus in torts, the lowest grade of her law school career. Jeffrey Toobin, the legal affairs writer for the New Yorker, recalls that Kagan and her friends were shocked by the grade, the New York Times…

May 25, 2010 4:41 PM CDT

Kagan Didn’t Have ‘Paradoxical Freedom’ Benefiting Ginsburg, O’Connor

Neither Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg nor Sandra Day O’Connor chose between career and children. O’Connor had three sons and a 56-year marriage before her husband’s death, while Ginsburg had two children and has also been married for 56 years. A New York Times magazine article wonders if the discrimination they…

May 25, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Washington Post Critiques Kagan’s Wardrobe, Judges It ‘Drab’ and ‘Dowdy’

The Washington Post has been keeping an uncomfortably close eye on Elena Kagan. A fashion column in the newspaper critiques Kagan’s wardrobe—it’s “drab” and “dowdy” with “a generous sprinkling of frumpiness”—and even analyzes the way she sits without crossing her legs. The story notes that Kagan is 50, making her…

May 24, 2010 11:33 AM CDT

Kagan Docs Reveal: Warren Court Criticism, Millionaire Status, Skadden Arps Prep

In a 1983 thesis, Elena Kagan criticized the liberal U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren for basing its rulings on social justice rather than legal principle. The Oxford University thesis will likely help Democrats make out a case that Kagan is not a judicial activist, the Wall Street…

May 19, 2010 12:33 PM CDT

Just One Mother on Supreme Court; Does It Make a Difference?

The nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court has led to all manner of tallies, as observers figure out how the justices stack up in terms of religion, gender, law schools, military service and geography, and how Kagan will change the mix. Now a Washington Post story adds…

May 19, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

A ‘Kreplach Cabal’ on Supreme Court? ADL and Pundits Hit Buchanan Column

A Patrick Buchanan column that criticizes the number of Jewish justices on the U.S. Supreme Court is provoking criticism and indignation from the Anti-Defamation League and media pundits. Buchanan’s column, entitled “Are liberals anti-WASP?” notes that if Elena Kagan is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, three of the court’s…

May 18, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Kagan May Have Agreed with Conservative Majority in Citizens United

In oral arguments last September, Solicitor General Elena Kagan defended a law restricting campaign spending by corporations, a fact noted with approval by President Obama when he nominated her to the U.S. Supreme Court. But if Kagan’s early First Amendment writings are any indication, she may have favored the other…

May 17, 2010 1:56 PM CDT