E  lena Kagan (1960 -) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Nominated by President Barack Obama on May 10, 2010, she is the fourth woman to become a member of the Court, assuming the role on August 7, 2010. Prior to her confirmation, Kagan had an illustrious legal and academic career.

Kagan is a native of New York City. She and her two siblings were raised Jewish, and she now practices Conservative Judaism. Kagan was an exceptional student and resolute in her goals, as evidenced by her academic successes. Her higher education started with her 1981 summa cum laude graduation from Princeton University with a B.A. in history and her1983 magna cum laude graduation from Worcester College, Oxford University as Princeton’s Daniel M. Sachs Graduating Fellow with a Master of Philosophy. In 1986, she earned a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was a supervisory editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Following her graduation, Elena Kagan continued her education in the law through various positions: law clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, law clerk for justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court, private practice in the law firm of Williams & Connolly, assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School, special counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee—where she worked on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, associate White House counsel for President Bill Clinton, professor and later Dean of Harvard Law School, and Solicitor General.

The Honorable Elena Kagan is considered a moderate within the liberal wing of the Supreme Court and is known for her conversational style, deep knowledge of First Amendment issues, and her proficiency with technology and knowledge pop culture.