Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan’s Views just as Opaque as Obama’s
IS THE SOLICITOR GENERAL JUST ANOTHER CLOSET RADICAL?

by Debra Mullins

Elena Kagan, current Solicitor General and U.S. Supreme Court nominee

(Jun. 8, 2010) — Obama’s Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, has no judicial experience and a rather slim resume as a litigator. Kagan, who is also a Harvard Law School graduate, has spent all but three years of her career in the lofty world of academia and in the government sector under the Clinton Administration where she served as Associate White House Counsel from 1995-1996, and as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council from 1997-1999.

Kagan was also nominated by Clinton in 1999 for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) never scheduled a confirmation hearing and her nomination eventually lapsed.

Ms. Kagan’s curriculum vitae, by all appearances, is quite stellar; an A.B. in History from Princeton University where she graduated summa cum laude in 1981; a Master of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in 1983; and a J.D. from Harvard University where she graduated magna cum laude in 1986. Kagan also clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1988 and worked for the Washington, D.C.-based firm of Williams & Connolly LLP as an associate from 1989-1991.

Kagan returned to academia in 1991 as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Law School, where she received tenure as a professor of law in 1995. She first met Obama at the university when he served as a part-time lecturer in constitutional law.

After her stint at the White House, Ms. Kagan again returned to academia 1999 as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School; in 2001, she became a full professor. In 2003, she assumed the helm as Dean of the Harvard Law School, a position she held until her appointment as the Solicitor General was confirmed by the Senate in March 2009. As Dean, Kagan successfully recruited and hired Cass Sunstein, Obama’s regulatory czar, and Lawrence Lessig, a copyright and trademark law expert and political activist. Kagan also banned the Army ROTC from recruiting on the law school’s campus due to the military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tellâ€