By The Editors

Elena Kagan, the United States Solicitor General and former Dean of Harvard Law School, was confirmed by the Senate Thursday as the nation’s newest Justice of the Supreme Court. She replaces progressive icon Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired after the Court’s term concluded in June.

The Senate vote of 63 to 37 gave President Obama success on his second consecutive Supreme Court nominee within a year. The Senate confirmed Justice Sonia Sotomayor on August 6 of last year to replace Justice David H. Souter, who also retired.

The President, upon learning of the vote, said he was confident Kagan “will make an outstanding Supreme Court justice” because of “her formidable intelligence, her rich understanding of our Constitution, her commitment to the rule of law,” and because “she knows that the Supreme Court’s decisions shape not just the character of our democracy but the circumstances of our daily lives.”

Kagan’s confirmation had been considered a virtual certainty from the moment the President announced her nomination, because she had been easily confirmed for Solicitor General by the Senate last year. And it was smoothed somewhat because, while considered [ delete the word “generally”] to be on the progressive side of the political spectrum, she, in replacing Stevens, would not alter the current 5-4 conservative-progressive arrangement of the Court.

Nonetheless, her confirmation has its share of historical importance. Kagan becomes the fourth woman in American history to become a Supreme Court justice; and it marks the first time there will be [ delete the word “simultaneously”] be three female Justices on the Court. Kagan is also the only Justice on the present Court not to have been a judge before her appointment.

In late June, shortly before the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on her nomination, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund issued a report stating its support for her nomination.

Read the report on the Nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States (PDF 219 KB)