10 Things You Didn't Know About Elena Kagan

Jessica Rettig

1. Elena Kagan was born on April 28, 1960 in New York City.

2. She attended Princeton University and graduated summa cum laude in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in history. In 1983, she received a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford's Worcester College. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1986. In law school, she was supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.

3. As an undergraduate, she worked as a legislative intern for New York Democratic Rep. Ted Weiss and later as a deputy press secretary for New York Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman. She wrote her senior thesis on socialism in New York City from 1900-1933. Her junior and senior years she was editorial chairman of The Prince, a student newspaper.

4. From 1986 to 1987, Kagan was a clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Abner Mikva. In 1988, she clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

5. In 1991, after working at a private D.C. law firm, Williams & Connolly, she became an assistant professor at University of Chicago Law School. She became a tenured professor there in 1995.

6. In 1995, she worked at the White House as assistant counsel to President Bill Clinton. Within a year she advanced to deputy assistant for domestic policy and then from 1997 to 1999, Kagan served as deputy director of the president's Domestic Policy Council.

7. Bill Clinton nominated Kagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1999 but the Senate Judiciary Committee refused to hold her confirmation hearing. Her would-be seat eventually went to John Roberts.

8. She became a professor at Harvard Law School in 1999 and became the school's dean in 2003.

9. In March 2009, Kagan was confirmed as the United States' 45th Solicitor General with a vote of 61 to 31. She was the first woman to ever hold the position.

10. Kagan has never been married.

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10 Things You Didn't Know About Elena Kagan