President Obama has just announced Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his pick to fill the vacancy created by Justice John Paul Stevens' retirement. You can read the statement from AFJ President Nan Aron on this nomination here.
This is an historic moment. Of the 111 justices who have served on the Supreme Court, only three have been women. If confirmed, Kagan will be the fourth, and on the first Monday in October, for the first time in history, three women would take their seats on our nation’s highest court. According to our just released report on Women in the Judiciary, women currently comprise just 24.7% of sitting federal judges (252 out of 1,018 federal judges, both active and senior status, are females).
President Obama should be commended for nominating another woman to the nation’s highest court, and we urge him to continue to rectify the gender imbalance in the federal judiciary by continuing to nominate women for judgeships.
To learn more about Elena Kagan, read our recently released report. We will continue to provide you with detailed information on Kagan's record throughout this nomination process.
We look forward to a fair and expeditious hearing for Elena Kagan and to a constructive, civil debate about the rights of the American people under the Constitution and the role of the courts in protecting the interests of all Americans, regardless of wealth, power, and influence.
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MoveOn.org lists Elena Kagan's pattern of compromise that has been the flaw in the Obama Administration. She will have a much easier confirmation than many others because she will keep the court strongly tilted to the right.
Salon.com May 7th published an article by four law professors calling Kagan'srecord on diversity issues "shocking" and "indefensible." Professor Darren Hutchinson of American University writes that Kagan's record in human rights is abysmal.
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