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Elena Kagan

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Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born and brought up in New York City, she was a free-spirited girl since childhood. Inspired by her attorney father, she took an early interest in law inspired and studied at Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard. She then clerked for Judge Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals and for Justice Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. In due course, she became a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School. She then served in the Clinton Administration for four years, first as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. After Clinton’s term ended, she returned to the academic world and eventually became the first female Dean of Harvard Law School. In 2009, President Obama nominated her as the first female Solicitor General of U.S. and after a year, he nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to fill the position left vacant by the approaching retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens. She took her seat in August 2010, followed by a formal investiture ceremony in October 2010.
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Born
April 28, 1960
Birth Place
Upper West Side, New York City, New York, United States
Nationality
American
Sun Sign
Taurus
Famous As
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Height
5'3" (160 cm)
Education
Harvard Law School - 1986, Worcester College, Oxford - 1983, Princeton University - 1981, Hunter College High School - 1977
Political Ideology
Democratic[
Father
Robert Kagan
Mother
Gloria (Gittelman) Kagan
Siblings
Irving Kagan, Marc Kagan
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Slate

Elena Kagan Is Mourning American Democracy

The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday in Cruz v. Federal Election Commission legalizes a form of “political speech” that is virtually indistinguishable from bribery. By a 6–3 vote, the conservative majority struck down yet another provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act—this time lopping off a modest restriction on candidates’ ability to collect donations after an election to repay personal loans to their own campaigns. The ruling will encourage lawmakers to do political favors for donors who put money straight into their bank accounts. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that—as Justice Elena Kagan put it in her furious and mournful dissent—Monday’s decision will “bring this country’s political system into further disrepute.”
CONGRESS & COURTS
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Elena Kagan Fast Facts

Here's a look at the life of Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. She is the fourth woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. Education: Princeton University, A.B., 1981, graduated summa cum laude; Worcester College, Oxford University, M. Phil., 1983; Harvard University, J.D., 1986, graduated magna cum laude. Religion:...
NEW YORK CITY, NY
Wyoming News

Elena Kagan: Early career life

In 1987 Kagan clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and a year later clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court. As a lawyer for the D.C. firm Williams & Connolly, Kagan worked on five lawsuits rooted in issues of the First Amendment and media law. In the early 1990s, she took a job as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where she published an influential law review article in which she argued that the SCOTUS should investigate governmental motives when dealing with cases concerning the First Amendment. Two years after she got her assistant professorship, Joe Biden appointed her as special counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she played a part in the confirmation hearings of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
POLITICS
Wyoming News

Elena Kagan: Before the Supreme Court

Prior to her nomination to the Supreme Court, Kagan worked as associate White House Counsel for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1996, as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, and as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council. In the latter role, Kagan co-wrote a memo asking that Clinton back a ban on late-term abortions. After returning to academia for a decade, Kagan was nominated to the position of solicitor general by Barack Obama, and became the first woman in the role. Though considered to be part of the liberal wing of the SCOTUS, Kagan veers on the moderate side. Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court in 2010, and she was confirmed the same year.
CONGRESS & COURTS
Wyoming News

Elena Kagan (2010–Present)

New York City native Justice Elena Kagan completed a stellar academic career before clerking first for a U.S. Appeals Court judge and then later for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. After moving between careers in law, academia, and briefly, politics, she was confirmed for the Supreme Court after being nominated by President Barack Obama. The youngest justice on the court, as well as the only one with no judicial experience, Kagan's arrival signaled the first time in history that the Supreme Court would include three sitting female justices at the same time. She is known as the justice who is most in tune with pop culture and technology. You may also like: 50 ways the news industry has changed in the last 50 years
NEW YORK CITY, NY
Wyoming News

Elena Kagan: Education

Elena Kagan graduated from Princeton in 1981, received an M.Phil. from Oxford’s Worcester College as a Daniel M. Sachs Graduating Fellow in ‘83, and earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School in ‘86, graduating with honors. At Princeton, Kagan was the editorial chair of The Daily Princetonian, and in collaboration with several other students, wrote a Declaration of the Campaign for a Democratic University, which detailed a need to retool university governance on a core level. At Worcester College, Kagan wrote a thesis on “The Development and Erosion of the American Exclusionary Rule: A Study in Judicial Method.” At Harvard, she worked as supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. She was described as being good with people and gained the respect of everyone despite divisive political views on campus.
EDUCATION
Harvard Crimson

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan Judges Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law

Founded in 1911, the Ames Moot Court Competition judges students' ability to develop appellate briefs and advocate for a legal position. By Truong L. Nguyen. Harvard Law School affiliates congregated to watch United States Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan preside over the final round of the Law School’s annual Ames Moot Court Competition Tuesday night.
HARVARD, MA
Slate

Why Does Elena Kagan Keep Roasting Brett Kavanaugh?

The Supreme Court is quiet. Too quiet. It is almost mid-June, and the court has yet to release any blockbuster decisions. What’s going on?. The simple answer is also the obvious one: These cases have sharply divided the justices, who are still circulating majority opinions, concurrences, and dissents between chambers, sniping at each other in acid footnotes that belie their public claims of collegiality, civility, and mutual respect. That’s nothing new; tempers frequently flare as the court completes its work for the term (usually by late June). This anger often boils over into smaller decisions that don’t grab headlines, but provide clues of what’s coming down the pike. On Thursday, the Supreme Court released such a decision. And while the outcome is progressive, the opinions themselves hint that the liberal justices are bracing for a wipeout in the coming weeks.
CONGRESS & COURTS
Slate

Elena Kagan Has Had Enough of Brett Kavanaugh’s Judicial “Scorekeeping”

Last year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Ramos v. Louisiana, prohibiting nonunanimous convictions of criminal defendants. Under the Constitution, the court declared, a split jury verdict is “no verdict at all.” On Monday, however, the court walked back this declaration. In Edwards v. Vannoy, the conservative majority held that Ramos does not apply retroactively—that is, to defendants who have already been convicted by split juries. The court then took the extraordinary step of overturning precedent that had allowed retroactive application of new decisions. No party asked the Supreme Court to reverse this precedent; the question was not briefed or argued. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s majority opinion reached out and grabbed it anyway, slamming the courthouse door on convicted defendants seeking the benefit of a new Supreme Court decision.
CONGRESS & COURTS