Getting to Know Kagan
This blog post was written by Christopher Smith, Biddle Law Library Intern.
On Thursday, August 5th, Elena Kagan became the 112th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, by a Senate vote of 63 to 37. A short biography of Kagan can be found here.
During the confirmation hearings, politicians on both sides of the aisle focused on nailing down where Kagan stood on various issues, as she is generally perceived as keeping her personal views private. Despite Kagan’s lack of a judicial record, politicians found several ways to take issue with her nomination. One of the largest controversies surrounded her stance on on-campus military recruitment, publicized while she was Dean of Harvard Law School. Much of the opposition to Kagan’s appointment fell along party lines, as was the case in her 2009 appointment to Solicitor General of the United States.
Although you may not have the Senate's vast resources to investigate Kagan’s history and views, there are many free and readily-accessible information sources. For more information, as well as some of Kagan’s own writings and briefs, see the Elena Kagan page created by the Library of Congress.
