What was one huge void in the resume of Elena Kagan when she became US Solicitor General?”
We are a nation that loves a horse race, even if on occasion we have to put the cart in front of the equine to get things rolling. Consider, for example, that the crowds had barely cleared out of Radio City Music Hall after this year’s NFL draft when the supposed experts were already telling us who would go in the first round of the 2010 event. Politics is no exception — you can see an early line on the 2012 presidential race here. Likewise, speculation is heavy over the person President Obama will nominate to nominate to take Justice David Souter’s spot on the Supreme Court bench. So who are the Mel Kipers of the chattering classes, and who do they see as the justice system’s Matthew Stafford? Does Obama need to appoint a female justice? A Hispanic justice? A gay justice? And can the Republicans stop him in any case? Well, any number of people were prepared to set the field, it turned out. The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein came out with a list of favorites and long shots that contained
Apparently she lacked a single Supreme Court oral argument in her resume. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202427376888 Solicitor General Pick Has One Glaring Gap on Resume Tony Mauro Legal Times January 12, 2009 Top-drawer legal practices have been built, enviable careers have been charted, and much ink has been spilled, based on a proposition that is rarely disputed: Arguing before the Supreme Court ain’t for amateurs. The justices themselves have fueled this perception by turning oral argument into an extreme sport that subjects the advocate to a barrage of questions — each of which must be answered strategically, accurately and, most of all, immediately. In their body language and their rulings, the justices often make it clear that they are happier when the target of their fusillade is a familiar face. If confirmed, Elena Kagan will soon walk into this club as solicitor general, without a singl
When the U.S. Supreme Court returns in January, Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be back at the lectern, arguing government positions that this term are increasingly tough to sell to a court that is aggressively flexing its conservative muscles. Kagan, who as a Supreme Court law clerk 25 years ago was routinely called “Shorty” by her boss, is now the chief advocate for the United States before that court. At 49, the dynamo with the ready grin has not added inches to her height, but her stature has grown. Widely admired for her intellectual acumen and administrative ability as dean at Harvard, Kagan came to the job of solicitor general with one huge, gaping void: She had never argued a case in the Supreme Court or any other court for that matter.
