High Court

Obama nominates Jewish woman for the Supreme Court.

E

WashingtonlJTA

Lena Kagan would make it three
— three women and three Jews on
the U.S. Supreme Court for the first
time in its history.
President Obama, announcing Monday
the nomination of his solicitor general to fill
retiring Justice John Paul Stevens' seat on the
Supreme Court, made one historical element
of the nomination explicit; the other was
implied.
"She would relish, as I do, the prospect
of three women taking their seats on the
Supreme Court for the first time in history','
Obama said of Kagan's late mother, who
fought gender discrimination as a lawyer.
The implied reference to Kagan's
Jewishness — joining Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and Stephen Breyer — also arose in refer-
ence to her parents at the announcement,

delivered at the White House alongside Vice
President Joe Biden. Both Obama and Kagan
referred to her late parents as "children of
immigrants
The immigrant staus of her grandparents,
Kagan said, instilled in her parents a belief
in the right of "all Americans, regardless
of their background or beliefs, to get a fair
hearing and an equal chance at justice."
Kagan — whose years in the upper reach-
es of academia have not softened her long,
oval New York-bred vowels — got to know
Obama through her association with Abner
Mikva, the Chicago-area former federal
judge who mentored both of them as young
lawyers making their way in Chicago. Kagan
tried to persuade Obama to seek tenure at
the University of Chicago, where he taught
for a time, but he had other plans.
Mikva became one of Obama's most
prominent backers as the president's political

career was launched in the mid-1990s. The
former judge often would make Obama's
case to the Jewish community.
Kagan, 50, likely will not face major
Republican opposition in U.S. Senate
confirmation hearings. A number of lead-
ing conservatives have endorsed her as a
moderate.
As dean at Harvard Law School, Kagan
sought to redress what she perceived as an
ideological imbalance by hiring conservative
professors.
Some conservatives on Monday issued
statements critical of Kagan, particularly for
resisting military recruitment at Harvard
because of the military's discriminatory
policies against gays.
However, U.S. Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., a
member of the Senate Republican leader-
ship, told CNN that a filibuster was unlikely.
Obama wants Kagan confirmed by the

Nominee Elena Kagan

August congressional recess.
Jewish groups that had surveyed the likely
nominees — Obama reportedly was down
to four —have been enthusiastic about the
prospect of a Kagan candidacy
"She's intellectually brilliant, and politi-
cally gifted at finding common ground and
finding consensus:' Rabbi David Saperstein,
who directs the Reform movement's
Religious Action Center, said when Obama
picked Kagan to be his solicitor general. ❑

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