Legal Research

Resources on Elena Kagan

By Simon Fodden

As you might have expected, the Library of Congress has put together resources relevant to the nomination of Elena Kagan for the U.S. Supreme Court. There you’ll find articles and books she’s written, relevant congressional documents, a collection of material from the web, half a dozen transcripts of her oral arguments before the Supreme Court, and some videos of and about her.

For those unfamiliar with Ms Kagan, who is currently the Solicitor General of the United States, Wikipedia has a good potted biography.

Somewhat like baseball statistics — you know: “the longest game ever played during rain in the twilight pitched by a left-hander from Cleveland”; that sort of thing — stats about her are being developed. A sample (from Wikipedia):

If confirmed by the Senate, Kagan would be the first justice in nearly four decades without any prior experience as a judge;[50][51] the last justice confirmed without prior experience as a judge was William Rehnquist in 1972;[52] she would also become the fourth female justice in the Supreme Court’s history, and the third on the current bench. She would also become the eighth Jewish justice in the Supreme Court’s history, and the third on the current bench.

And I think I’m right in saying that she’s the first unmarried woman nominee. Sadly, this has led to ridiculous and irrelevant speculation that she is a lesbian, something the White House hastily denied, as if it were a disqualification.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on May 13, 2010 (boomark / email).