Kagan Is Now A Justice

Aug 9, 2010 by James

Elena Kagan the former Solicitor General was sworn in Saturday as the 112th Justice to the Supreme Court and is the 4th woman to ever serve. Chief Justice John Roberts swore her in at a private ceremony where friends and family joined her in the momentous occasion. Chief Justice Roberts said “we look forward to serving with you” and Elena then turned to the crowd who broke into applause.

Kagan won the nomination after a 67-37 vote in the Senate after being heavily criticized by Republicans as a “political liberal”. Obama chose Kagan to replace the rapidly aging and now retired Justice John Paul Stevens. During her busy day Saturday she was sworn in twice taking the first oath as prescribed by the constitution and the second an oath taken only by judges. Now that she is fully sworn in she is able to begin assuming her duties as a Justice however she will not be in the court room until October 1st when the new term starts.

She is not expected to shift the court’s balance in terms of voting on high profile cases as she herself is a Liberal and the Justice she is replacing was known as the Leader of Liberals. The court often votes 5-4 on high profile cases like gun control and it seems it will stay that way for now. Kagan will join fellow female Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. The first female Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired in 2005.

The only issue that Kagan was really hassled on was her denial of military recruitment at the Harvard Law Campus. Her decision to ban the recruiters was quickly overturned by her once she found out the federal government passed a law that could bar the campus from funding. Public schools that allow the military to recruit on campus are given extra federal funds. The Republicans of course called her anti-military when she is nothing of the sort; she is simply more pro-education than pro-military.

I highly respect this woman and I know she will serve the people of the United States and the Constitution quite well. She’s only 50 years old so she will have plenty of cases to rule on and hopefully many backward laws to repeal like the bans on gay marriage.

View my other Elena Kagan Posts:

Kagan Anti-Military

Elena Kagan

Information via MSNBC