# Elena Kagan *Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed 2010* Elena Kagan (born April 28, 1960) is an associate justice of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. President Barack Obama appointed her in 2010.[^1][^2] She is a lawyer by training. Before the Court she was solicitor general of the United States, a post she took up in 2009, and earlier dean of Harvard Law School.[^1] The [[United States Senate]] confirmed her nomination 63–37 to fill the seat vacated by Justice [[John Paul Stevens]].[^1] She had held no judgeship before joining the Court. Wikipedia, writing as of 2022, describes her as the latest justice appointed without prior judicial experience.[^1] ## Early life Kagan was born in Manhattan on April 28, 1960, the second of three children. Her father practised law and her mother taught at Hunter College Elementary School.[^3] She grew up in New York City. Her family lived at West End Avenue and 75th Street and attended Lincoln Square Synagogue.[^3] ## Career ### Early career After law school Kagan clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1986 to 1987. From 1987 to 1988 she clerked for Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]].[^4] Wikipedia places that clerkship in a period of conservative movement on the Court that followed [[William Rehnquist]]'s elevation to Chief Justice in 1986.[^4] From 1989 to 1991 she was a junior associate at Williams & Connolly, a Washington, D.C., law firm. There she worked on five lawsuits involving First Amendment, media-law or libel questions.[^4] ### Academia and government Kagan joined the [[University of Chicago Law School]] as an assistant professor in 1991.[^4] Her publications from that period include an article on regulating hate speech under the First Amendment after the Supreme Court's ruling in [[R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul]]. She also wrote an article on governmental motive in speech regulation and a book review on the judicial confirmation process.[^4] In 1993 Senator Joe Biden named her special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.[^4] She later served in the Clinton administration, first as Associate White House Counsel and then as a policy adviser.[^1] President Bill Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but the nomination lapsed without action. She then returned to teaching at Harvard Law School and was later named its dean.[^1] In 2009 she became solicitor general of the United States.[^1] ## Supreme Court ### Nomination Justice [[David Souter]] announced in 2009 that he would retire, giving Obama his first Supreme Court vacancy.[^5] The Associated Press reported on May 13, 2009, that Kagan was among those under consideration. On May 26, 2009, Obama announced that he had selected [[Sonia Sotomayor]].[^5] Stevens announced on April 9, 2010, that he would retire at the start of the Court's summer recess. Obama nominated Kagan on May 10, 2010.[^5] In early June, 69 law school deans, more than one-third of the country's total, signed an open letter backing the nomination.[^5] ### Confirmation The Senate Judiciary Committee opened confirmation hearings on June 28.[^5] The full Senate confirmed her by a 63–37 vote.[^1] ## Writing style Kagan wrote fewer opinions than any other justice in her first term, and none of them were separate writings. Each was a majority opinion or dissent assigned to her by a more senior justice.[^6] She again had the lowest opinion count in each term from 2011 through 2014. She shared that position with [[Anthony Kennedy]] in 2011 and 2013.[^6] Commentators have described her prose as conversational. She has compared her approach to opinion-writing with her approach to teaching, and her opinions rely on examples and analogies.[^6] Her majority opinion in *Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC* was a 6–3 ruling for Marvel. It held that a patentee may not collect royalties once a patent has expired, and it contained several Spider-Man references.[^6] ## Jurisprudence Kagan is commonly placed at the Court's center. After her nomination, White House officials described her as a "pragmatic progressive".[^7] Wikipedia records that she sought consensus on the Court until the decision overturning *Roe v. Wade*. After *Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization*, she began criticizing the Court's rightward movement in public.[^7] She joined the liberal bloc in *King v. Burwell*, 576 U.S. 988 (2015), which upheld the Affordable Care Act's subsidies and individual mandate. She also joined it in *Obergefell v. Hodges*, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), which bars states from prohibiting same-sex marriage.[^7] In 2018, Slate wrote that she had crossed ideological lines in several cases the previous term. Slate grouped her with Roberts, [[Stephen Breyer]] and Kennedy in a centrist bloc.[^7] FiveThirtyEight found that she voted with [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] and Sotomayor more than 90% of the time.[^7] In the 2017–18 term, her closest agreement was with Breyer, at 93% of cases. Her lowest was with [[Samuel Alito]], at 58.82%.[^7] Her majority opinions include *Cooper v. Harris*, *Chiafalo v. Washington* and *Kisor v. Wilkie*.[^1] Her dissents include *Rucho v. Common Cause*, *West Virginia v. EPA*, *Brnovich v. DNC*, [[Janus v. AFSCME]] and *Seila Law v. CFPB*.[^1] As circuit justice, the justice who handles emergency applications, Kagan was first assigned the Sixth and Seventh Circuits.[^7] After [[Brett Kavanaugh]] was confirmed, she was reassigned to the Ninth Circuit, the largest circuit by area.[^7] ## Other activities Kagan made at least 20 public appearances in her first four years on the Court. She tends to favor engagements that involve speaking to students.[^8] *Time* included her in its Time 100 list for 2013. The accompanying article was written by former justice [[Sandra Day O'Connor]], who called her "an incisive legal thinker".[^8] In 2018, William & Mary Law School awarded her the Marshall-Wythe Medallion. Hunter College gave her an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters the same year.[^8] ## Personal life Kagan has not married.[^9] Early in her tenure she spent time socially with several colleagues. She went to the opera with Ginsburg, dined with Sotomayor, and attended legal events with Kennedy and [[Clarence Thomas]].[^9] Her hunting trips with [[Antonin Scalia]] came from a promise she made before her confirmation to Senator Jim Risch of Idaho. Risch had questioned whether a New York City native understood hunting's importance to his constituents.[^9] ## Selected scholarly works - *The Changing Faces of First Amendment Neutrality: R.A.V. v. St. Paul, Rust v. Sullivan, and the Problem of Content-Based Underinclusion*, Supreme Court Review (1992).[^10] - *Regulation of Hate Speech and Pornography After R.A.V.*, University of Chicago Law Review 60 (1993).[^10] - *Confirmation Messes, Old and New*, University of Chicago Law Review 62 (1995).[^10] - *Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine*, University of Chicago Law Review 63 (1996).[^10] - *Presidential Administration*, Harvard Law Review 114 (2001).[^10] - *Chevron's Nondelegation Doctrine* (with David J. Barron), Supreme Court Review (2001).[^10] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, lead section (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — appointment, prior posts, confirmation vote, landmark majority and dissenting opinions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^2]: Supreme Court Historical Society, *Elena Kagan, 2010–present* (undated) — associate-justice biography listing her tenure from 2010. https://supremecourthistory.org/associate-justices/elena-kagan-2010-present/ [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Early life* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth date and place, family, upbringing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Career* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — clerkships, private practice, Chicago faculty post and publications, 1993 Judiciary Committee appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Supreme Court* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — 2009 and 2010 vacancies, nomination date, deans' letter, hearing date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Writing style* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — opinion counts by term; *Kimble v. Marvel*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Jurisprudence* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — voting record, agreement rates, circuit assignments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Other activities* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — public appearances, Time 100, 2018 honors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^9]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Personal life* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — marital status, social contacts with colleagues, Risch promise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan [^10]: Wikipedia contributors, *Elena Kagan*, section *Selected scholarly works* (revision 1375136418, retrieved 2026-10-26) — bibliography of scholarly articles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan