Elena Kagan Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Childhood and Early Life

US Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was born in New York City on the 28 April 1960 to Robert Kagan, an attorney and Gloria Gittleman, a teacher. The couple had three children, a daughter, and two sons.

Education

After graduating from Hunter College High School, Elena Kagan attended Princeton University, BA (1981), Worcester College, MA Philosophy Oxford University (1983) and Harvard University, JD (1986).

Rise to Fame

Between 1986 and 1987, Elena Kagan was a law clerk for Judge Abner of the US Court of Appeals on the DC Circuit. In 1988, she became a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. She was an associate with the legal firm Williams & Connolly in Washington DC (1989-1991) and from 1991-1995 was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. During this period, in 1993, Senator Joe Biden made Kagan special counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Career

Elena Kagan was associate counsel to President Bill Clinton (1995-1996), before being appointed Deputy assistant to the president on domestic policy as well as serving as deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council (1997-1999). In 1999, the president nominated Kagan to the US Court of Appeals, but the nomination lapsed. From 1999 until 2003, Kagan was a professor at Harvard Law School; and from 2003 until 2009, she was the Dean of Harvard University Law School.

On the 19 March 2009, Elena Kagan began the first woman to serve as the US Solicitor General of the United States. Then in May 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Kagan as a justice to the US Supreme Court. In August 2010, the US Senate confirmed Kagan as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, and she was sworn in as the 112th Supreme Court Justice on the 7 August 2010.

Awards and Achievements

In 2010, Elena Kagan became the fourth woman to be appointed to the bench of the US Supreme Court. She was also the first woman to be designated as the solicitor general of the United States.

Religion

Elena Kagan is Jewish.