Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Elena Kagan Wins Senate Confirmation

Elena Kagan was confirmed as the U.S. Supreme Court’s 112th justice.

The U.S. Senate approved the nomination of Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general, in a 63-37 vote Thursday.

Kagan, 50, joins Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer as Jewish justices on the current high court. She also becomes the fourth woman to serve as a justice, and one of three now with Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.

Kagan, a New York City native, was an attorney and policy adviser in the Clinton White House for four years. She is a former dean of the Harvard Law School.

President Obama nominated Kagan in May to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who served on the court for 35 years. Kagan is expected to support the court’s more liberal wing, which Stevens led during his time on the court.

The Senate has been debating Kagan’s nomination for the past three days ahead of a monthlong recess.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.