Former Dean of Harvard Law School and Solicitor General Elena Kagan has been nominated as the 112^th Judge of the Supreme Court of United States reported New York Times. Elena Kagan would succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

Elena Kagan was appointed as the Solicitor General of United States under the Obama administration in January 2009. Before being appointed as the Solicitor General, Elena Kagan was the first woman to be the dean of Harvard Law School.  She was the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor at Harvard Law School, before which she was a Professor at University of Chicago Law School.

New York Times reports that if confirmed, she would be the youngest member and the third woman on the current court, but the first judge in nearly four decades without any prior judicial experience. The lack of time on the bench may help or hurt her confirmation prospects, allowing critics to question whether she is truly qualified while denying them a lengthy judicial paper trail filled with ammunition for attacks.

Vivek Reddy, who studied Administrative Process under Elena Kagan said, “President Obama was looking for a consensus builder on the Supreme Court. Dean Kagan fits the bill. William Brennan famously said that a Supreme Court Judge should be able to count to five. He (and now she) should be able to get five votes. Kagan's prior record as the Dean of the Harvard Law School demonstrates her ability to carry the conservatives along with her. She made a record hiring of conservative professors and was able to carry them along. President Obama will require that skill on the Supreme Court because the current composition of Supreme Court (4 Republican appointees) does not favour the Obama Administration. She also is an eminent scholar in her own right. Her much admired article in the 2001 Harvard Law Review on Presidential Powers provides an excellent illustration.”

Elena Kagan was also embroiled in the 'Don’t Ask Don’t Tell' controversy regarding military recruitment at the Harvard Law School. She was vocal in her disapproval of the ban on homosexuals serving in the military. As the Dean of Harvard Law School, she barred military recruiters from using the law school’s Office of Career Services. She reversed her decision after the government threatened to enforce the Solomon Amendment, which allows the federal government to withhold money from universities that do not extend the same welcome to military recruiters as they do to other recruiters. However, during her confirmation for solicitor general, she wrote that because the Supreme Court has upheld the Solomon Amendment, she would vigorously defend it against constitutional challenge.

Elena Kagan has an M.Phil from Oxford University and a J.D. from the Harvard Law School.

There are rumours that Preeta Bansal, former Solicitor General of New York may be appointed as the next Solicitor General. She is a member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). A Harvard Law School alumnus was also a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Considered to be part of the Obama’s inner circle, Bansal was a candidate earlier, but Elena Kagan was later appointed to that post.