Previously on this blog we’ve taken a look at some well-known Jewish lawyers. This week we’ll take a look at recent Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.
Kagan’s resume is filled with aspects of continued law education. She was a law clerk for Judge Abner Mikva, as well as for Justice Thurgood Marshall (who apparently nicknamed her ‘Shorty’). She was the 45th Solicitor General of the United States, and the 11th Dean of the Harvard Law School.
It was on May 9th, 2010 that President Barack Obama announced he would nominate Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens. If she receives Senate confirmation, she will be the fourth female member in Supreme Court history, as well as the eighth Jewish justice ever. The Highest Court in the Land currently has two Jewish lawyers on it.
However, she would be the first Supreme Court justice to hold the position without any previous experience as a judge since 1972. (The last Supreme Court judge without judging experience was the late William Rehnquist, who was also the Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005)
Her Jewish heritage made its way into a highly-publicized exchange during her nomination hearing with ignorant South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. During a response about the “Christmas Day Bomber,” Kagan was interrupted by Graham who said “Nah, I just asked where you were at on Christmas.”
Kagan paused only for a brief second, seemingly taken aback by the utterly irrelevant question, and then deadpanned “Y’know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”