Obama chose a nominee who has never been a jObama chose a nominee who has never been a jPresident Barack Obama introduces Solicitor Genera
l Elena Kagan as his choice for Supreme Court
Justice in the East Room of the White House
in Washington, Monday May 10, 2010 as Vice Pr
esident Joe Biden applau ds. (AP Photo/J. Scot
t Applewhite) (AP)Introducing his Supreme Cou
rt nominee to the nation, President Barack Ob
ama on Monday portrayed Elena Kagan as a guid
ing force for a fractured court and a champio< /br>n of typical Americans. She would be the youn
gest justice on the court and give it three w
omen for the first time in history.Less excit
ed, Republican senators said they would give
the n omination a long, hard look in potential
ly contentious summertime confirmation hearin
gs. One declared he would oppose her, but Dem
ocrats hold a strong majority of Senate seats
, making eventual approval likely.In choosing
Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general and a form
er dean of Harvard Law School, Obama sought s
omeone he hopes will seal majority votes on a
divided court, as the ret iring Justice John
Paul Stevens sometimes had the ability to do.
The president, who said Kagan has "one of th
e nation's foremost legal minds," wanted some
one who could counter the court's conservativ
e leaders as well as sway votes with her thin
king and temperament.Obama chose a nominee wh
o has never been a judge, a factor the White
House said had worked in Kagan's favor, givin
g her a different perspective from the other
justices. Poised to put his imprint on the co
urt for a second time, the president embraced
Kagan's profile: a left-leaning lawyer who h
as won praise from the right, earned politica
l experience at the White House and on the co
llege campus, cleared one Senate confirmation
already and served as the nation's top lawye
r.He wanted not just a justice who w ould thri
ve, but one who would lead.At 50 years old an
d with lifetime tenure, Kagan could extend Ob
ama's court legacy by decades. Her vote could
be the difference on cases that shape Amer ic
an liberties and the scope of the government'
s power.The choice also makes history for Oba
ma, and he reveled in it. After being the fir
st president to appoint a Hispanic justice la
st year in Sonia Sotomayor, he would also be
the one who ensured that three women would se
rve on the court at the same time. Kagan woul
d join Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Ment
ioning Kagan's late mother, Obama said: "I th
ink she would relish, as do I, the prospect o
f three women taking their seat on the nation
's highest court for the first time in histor
y a court that wou ld be more inclusive, more
representative, more reflective of us as a p
eople than ever before."
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