After answering 540 questions in a 17-hour testimony, Elena Kagan has been confirmed by the Senate as the 100th associate Supreme Court justice on Thursday.
Kagan will take her constitutional oath in a private ceremony administered by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. in the Justices’ Conference Room on Saturday at 2 p.m. with family members present. Afterward, she will take her judicial oath in the West Conference Room in front of her family and friends.
“Over the past two months, the committee has scrutinized Elena’s record as a scholar, as a law school dean, as a presidential adviser, and as solicitor general,” President Barack Obama said in a statement at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel in Chicago on Thursday.
The committee has also come to understand Kagan’s character, Obama said.
“They’ve gotten a good sense of her formidable intelligence, her rich understanding of our Constitution, her commitment to the rule of law, and her excellent—and occasionally irreverent—sense of humor,” Obama said.
Obama said he is “confident” that Kagan will be an “outstanding” Supreme Court justice.
Obama noted that for almost two centuries, not a single woman was on the highest court. As Kagan takes her seat on that bench, the nation will—for the first time in history—have three women in the court: Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor.
Kagan, 50, was born and raised in New York City and attended Princeton University, Worcester College, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School.
She served as the 11th dean of Harvard Law School from July 2003 to March 2009 and was the 45th U.S. solicitor general from March 2009 to May 2010.
A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Oct. 1.
Kagan will take her constitutional oath in a private ceremony administered by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. in the Justices’ Conference Room on Saturday at 2 p.m. with family members present. Afterward, she will take her judicial oath in the West Conference Room in front of her family and friends.
“Over the past two months, the committee has scrutinized Elena’s record as a scholar, as a law school dean, as a presidential adviser, and as solicitor general,” President Barack Obama said in a statement at the Renaissance Chicago Hotel in Chicago on Thursday.
The committee has also come to understand Kagan’s character, Obama said.
“They’ve gotten a good sense of her formidable intelligence, her rich understanding of our Constitution, her commitment to the rule of law, and her excellent—and occasionally irreverent—sense of humor,” Obama said.
Obama said he is “confident” that Kagan will be an “outstanding” Supreme Court justice.
Obama noted that for almost two centuries, not a single woman was on the highest court. As Kagan takes her seat on that bench, the nation will—for the first time in history—have three women in the court: Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor.
Kagan, 50, was born and raised in New York City and attended Princeton University, Worcester College, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School.
She served as the 11th dean of Harvard Law School from July 2003 to March 2009 and was the 45th U.S. solicitor general from March 2009 to May 2010.
A formal investiture ceremony will take place on Oct. 1.
This article was corrected on July 7, 2010. The original article mistakenly referred to Justice Elena Kagan as the 100th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. A correction has been made to reflect her status as the 100th associate justice of the Supreme Court.
