Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide

On May 10, 2010, President Obama nominated current Solicitor General Elena Kagan to fill the seat previously held by Justice Stevens. The Senate Judiciary Committee held the confirmation hearings the week of June 28. On Thursday, August 5, the Senate confirmed Solicitor General Kagan by a vote of 63-37, and she was sworn in on Saturday, August 7.

• List of documents submitted with committee questionnaire, letters sent and received in connection with the nomination, and a photo gallery (Senate Judiciary Committee).
• The GPO's Congressional Record index provides citations to all mentions of Elena Kagan, including her nomination, letters in support, and remarks made before the Senate and House (FDsys).
• C-SPAN video of confirmation hearings, swearing in ceremony and more.
• Full transcripts of the hearing are available  in the CQ Transcriptions database on Lexis. Search for "Kagan".
• Judiciary Committee vote to send nomination to full Senate.
• Senate Vote Summary.

• Office of the Solicitor General
• Profile from the New  York Times
• Background from the White House
• Profile from National Public Radio
• Video from the White House
• Judgepedia entry
• Wikipedia entry

• Hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (Government Printing Office)
• Discussions of Kagan Nomination Appearing in The Congressional Record:
  • Discussion of Kagan in context of debate over David Ogden nomination to Deputy Attorney General, including letter to Senator Specter: 155 Cong. Rec. S2995 - S3015 (March 11, 2009)
  • Debate over her nomination and vote: 155 Cong. Rec. S3520 - 3536 (March 19, 2009)

Book Chapters and Reports

• "Office of the White House Counsel" in Mark Green and Michele Jolin, eds., Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President (Basic Books 2009)
• "Foreword" in Daniel Hamilton and Alfred Brophy, eds., Transformations in American Legal History: Essays in Honor of Professor Morton J. Horwitz (Harvard 2009) [Call Number: Stacks KF352 .T73 2009]
• Elana Kagan & Cass Sunstein, Remembering 'TM' (1993) (reprint of "For Justice Marshall," 71 Texas L. Rev. 1125 (1993) and "On Marshall's Conception of Equality," 44 Stanford L. Rev. 1267 (1992)).

Articles

• Elena Kagan, Remarks Commemorating Celebration 55: The Women's Leadership Summit, Introduction,32 Harv. J.L. & Gender 233 (2009)
• Conversation between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Dean Elena Kagan, 32 Harv. J.L. & Gender 237 (2009)
• Elena Kagan, The Harvard Law School Revisited: Reflecting on Louis D. Brandeis's Harvard Law School Reflections, 11 Green Bag 475 (2008)
• Elena Kagan, Clark Byse, 121 Harv. L. Rev. 454 (2007)
• Elena Kagan, Richard Posner, the Judge, 120 Harv. L. Rev. 1121 (2007)
• Elena Kagan, David Westfall, 119 Harv. L. Rev. 947 (2006)
• Elena Kagan, Women and the Legal Profession - A Status Report, 61 Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York 37 (2006)
• Elena Kagan, Presidential Administration, 114 Harv. L. Rev. 2245 (2001)
• Elena Kagan & David J. Barron, Chevron's Nondelegation Doctrine, 2001 Sup. Ct. Rev. 201 (2001)
• Elena Kagan, Libel and the First Amendment (Update), Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (2000)
• Elena Kagan, Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., Encyclopedia of the American Constitution (2000)
• Elena Kagan, When a Speech Code is a Speech Code: the Stanford Policy and the Theory of Incidental Restraints, 29 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 957 (1996)
• Elena Kagan, Private Speech, Public Purpose: the Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine, 63 U. Chi. L. Rev. 413 (1996)
• Elena Kagan, Confirmation Messes, Old and New (Book Review), 62 U. Chi. L. Rev. 919 (1995)
• Elena Kaga, Regulation of Hate Speech and Pornography After R.A.V., 60 U. Chi. L. Rev. 873 (1993)
• Elena Kagan, For Justice Marshall, 71 Tex. L. Rev. 1125 (1993)
• Elena Kagan, A Libel Story: Sullivan Then and Now, 18 Law & Soc. Inquiry 197 (1993)
• Elena Kagan, The Changing Faces of First Amendment Neutrality: R.A.V. v St. Paul [112 S. Ct. 2538 (1992)], Rust v Sullivan [111 S. Ct. 1759 (1991)], and the Problem of Content-Based Underinclusion, 1992 Sup. Ct. Rev. 29 (1992)
• Note, Certifying Classes and Subclasses in Title VII Suits, 99 Harv. L. Rev. 619 (1986)

• Kagan on Cameras in the Courtroom at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference (7/23/2009), via YouTube
• Women and the Supreme Court (First Amendment Center 1/28/2010)
• Kagan accepting Dean of the Year Award from Equal Justice Works (11/4/2008) via YouTube

Kagan argued in front of the court six times during the 2009 term. Oral argument transcripts are available from the Law Library of Congress. Briefs filed by the Solicitor General's office from these six cases are available below. See our Supreme Court Research Guide for where to locate other briefs.

• Robertson v. U.S. ex rel. Watson (No. 08-6261)
• Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (Nos. 08-1498 & 09- 89) (includes Reply Brief)
• U.S. v. Comstock (No. 08-1224) (includes Reply Brief)
• Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Co. Accounting Oversight Bd. (No. 08-861)
• Salazar, Sec'y of Interior v. Bruno (No. 08-472) (includes Reply Brief)
• Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (No. 08-205) (includes Supplemental Brief and Supplemental Reply Brief)

The following materials relate to Kagan's tenure as dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.

• Report of the Task Force on Women Faculty
• Fall 2004 - Fall 2008 columns from Harvard Law Bulletin (Alumni Magazine)

From 1995 to 1999, Kagan served as Associate White House Counsel to President Clinton. The following material relate to her time in this position.

• Partial-Birth Abortion Bill Memo

On April 9, Justice Stevens announced his retirement from the Court in a letter to President Obama.

• Selected Resources on Elena Kagan (Law Library of Congress)
• SCOTUSblog
• NPR legal affairs stories
• Hearing & Reports by Senate Judiciary Committee on Elena Kagan pt. 1 (Liebert ed., Hein & Co. 2012)
• Hearing & Reports by Senate Judiciary Committee on Elena Kagan pt. 2 (Liebert ed., Hein & Co. 2012)
• Hearing & Reports by Senate Judiciary Committee on Elena Kagan pt. 3 (Liebert ed., Hein & Co. 2012)