Barack Obama has nominated Elena Kagan, the dean of the Harvard Law School, to serve as his solicitor general. If confirmed by the Senate, she would become the first female to serve in the job.
Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, praised the appointment of Kagan, who is Jewish. Saperstein had dealings with her when she was a lawyer and policy adviser in the Clinton administration.
“She’s the quintessential Barack Obama appointment. She’s intellectually brilliant, and politically gifted at finding common ground and finding consensus,” said Saperstein, who added that Kagan “knows First Amendment issues very well” and “really knows the Jewish community well.”
The solicitor general represents the United States in front of the Supreme Court, arguing cases and filing briefs stating the government’s position when the government is not a direct party to the case. The position is often seen as a steppingstone to a Supreme Court nomination.
Kagan, 48, and Obama taught at the University of Chicago Law School at the same time during the 1990s. At Harvard Law School, Obama’s alma mater, Kagan has won praise for building consensus and for record fundraising.
The Boston Globe reported that Kagan used her clout and persuasive powers to steal faculty from other law schools and to win the hearts of students, noting that when she was passed over for the university presidency, a group of more than 500 law students wore “We [heart] Elena” T-shirts at an improptu party.
However, the Globe quoted Harvard law school professor Detlev Vagts as saying he is “not a Kagan fan.” “Her biggest achievement, is to make [the law school] more student-friendly by adding more sections and radiating this somewhat, can I say, a Jewish mother” persona, the Globe quoted Vagts as saying. “She’s given out a lot of chicken soup.”
Kagan has never argued a Supreme Court case but clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and practiced at a Washington law firm. She also worked as associate counsel and a domestic policy adviser under former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton nominated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but Republicans stalled the nomination.
The United States is involved in about two-thirds of all cases the Supreme Court decides, according to the Justice Department. The solicitor general’s office also determines whether the government should appeal lower court decisions or intervene in appellate court cases. — jta & ap