By Kathy Groob, Publisher ElectWomen Magazine

Confirmation hearings began for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.  After 19 senators on the judicial committee offered introductions and remarks, Kagan took the microphone. She began by expressing her condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the late Senator Robert Byrd.  She also expressed sadness that her own parents were not alive to witness her historic nomination.

Elena Kagan talked about her experience and talked about the need for keeping an open mind and being a good listener.  She praised judicial restraint and advocates for a modest role for the Supreme Court. “What the Supreme Court does is safeguard the rule of law, through a commitment to evenhandedness, principle and restraint.”

If confirmed, Elena Kagan would become the third woman currently serving on the Supreme Court and the second woman to be appointed by President Barack Obama. She openly thanked Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg for paving the way for women in the legal field.

Kagan was born in New York City in 1960, graduated from Princeton and then Harvard Law School.  She began her legal career as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and became involved in politics by working for the Dukakis for President campaign.  After a stint in a D.C. law firm, Kagan joined the University of Chicago Law School as a professor.  In 1995 she was appointed as associate White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.  She then served ten years as a professor at Harvard Law School and was named as dean of Harvard Law School in 2003.

President Barack Obama selected Elena Kagan to be the U.S. solicitor general in March of 2009, and she has served in that capacity until her present Supreme Court nomination.  Many speculate that President Obama selected Kagan for her supreme legal intellect and to serve as a counterweight to Chief Justice John Roberts.  She is just 50 years old and could conceivably serve for 20 or 30 years.

Visit the Washington Post for a full transcript of Kagan’s opening remarks.

Click here.