Moment in Herstory: Kagan Confirmed & Sworn In

This past Thursday, August 5th, supreme court justice nominee Elena Kagan was confirmed as the 112th justice and 4th woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. On Saturday, August 7th, Kagan was sworn in twice, once before friends and family and again before the media, by Chief Justice John Roberts who told Kagan, "We look forward to serving with you."

A former Harvard Law School dean and most recently, U.S. solicitor general, Kagan will succeed John Paul Stevens as she makes history by bringing the number of women serving at one time to three of nine seats for the first time.

Kagan's presence on the U.S. Supreme Court is not expected to cause a shift in the supreme court's ideology because Stevens had a reputation for being the "leader of the liberals," but the feminist community excitedly awaits her formal installment as a justice on October 1, 2010.

Photo Credit: Boston Globe

Fem News Episode 3

It's Fem News Friday! Please enjoy the following video on the Elena Kagan Hearings for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court!

Kibbitzing with the Judiciary Committee

Cross-posted at Jewesses with Attitude

Yesterday marked the final day of Solicitor General and Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearings are regarded by some as a useful tool for gauging a nominee’s judicial philosophy and by others as a farcical display of senatorial bluster and skilled evasiveness. Kagan herself sharply criticized the hearing process itself in a 1995 article she wrote during her tenure as a professor at the University of Chicago, though she says that her perspective on that particular issue has changed now that she finds herself in the hot seat.

Senators and pundits across party lines have praised Kagan's performance during the hearings, though that does not mean that she can count on the support of any conservative Senators when it's time to vote on her nomination. But she has definitely come across as intelligent, quick-witted, and charming. One of her greatest strengths during the hearings has been a killer sense of humor. Her best one liner played off her Jewish identity. When asked by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) where she was on Christmas Day in the lead-up to a question about the terrorist arrested on a plane this past December, she cleverly retorted "Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant."



I get such a kick out of seeing a nominee who doesn't hide her Jewish identity, but jokes about it. She's bold, she's Jewish, she's from New York--in Elena Kagan, I see myself and a lot of other fabulous women I know. May that chutzpah help her once she's (hopefully!) on the nation's highest bench.

Supreme Court Update

More news has emerged since we last discussed the looming Supreme Court nomination! A list of potential nominees has been leaked by a source at the White House to the Associated Press and (awesomely) 5 of the 6 names listed are women.

The list confirms the consideration of the four women I discussed last week: Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and US Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. A surprise for me was Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Also listed was California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno.