Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Kagan Is Reportedly Obama’s Choice for Supreme Court

President Obama will reportedly nominate Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kagan, 50, currently the solicitor general and a former dean of Harvard Law School, is the president’s pick, NBC News reported Sunday evening.

Kagan would bring the number of Jews and women on the court to three: Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are Jewish, and Obama filled his first vacancy, last year, with Sonia Sotomayor.

Kagan likely would not face Republican opposition in U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. A number of leading conservatives have endorsed her as a moderate.

As dean at Harvard Law, Kagan sought to redress what she perceived as an ideological imbalance by hiring conservative professors.

Jewish groups that have surveyed the likely picks – Obama reportedly was down to four – have been enthusiastic about the prospect of a Kagan candidacy.

Kagan would replace John Paul Stevens, a liberal stalwart who is retiring at 90.

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.