WASHINGTON, DC / The Washington Post / US Politics / May 10, 2010
Elena Kagan never let lack of experience hold her back
By Robert Barnes
The woman President Obama has chosen to be the 112th justice of the Supreme Court has never been a judge -- not that it was of her own choosing.
Elena Kagan was 39 when President Bill Clinton nominated her for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, sometimes referred to as the second most important court in the land. The Republican-controlled Senate never brought her nomination for a vote before Clinton's presidency expired. Kagan, now 50, went on to become the dean of Harvard Law School, and despite the lack of judicial experience, her name has appeared on every list of people a Democratic president should consider for the high court.
Elena Kagan: Obama's Supreme Court nominee
If confirmed, Solicitor General Elena Kagan would replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. Kagan, 50, the former dean of Harvard Law School, would become the fourth woman to serve on the high court.
The expectation only grew when Obama made Kagan, a native New Yorker, the first woman to be named as solicitor general, the government's top appellate lawyer and representative at the Supreme Court. [rc]
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