Senate Confirms Elena Kagan as U.S. Supreme Court Justice

The U.S. Senate confirmed Elena Kagan’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court today by a vote of 63-37. She will become the 112th justice on the court, and the fourth female justice, according to CNN.

This will also be the first time in history that three women have served together on the panel of nine judges. Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the New York Daily News yesterday that she was extremely excited about that proposition.

Kagan is seen as a more liberal candidate for the seat and shouldn’t affect the Court’s ideological balance following John Paul Stevens’ retirement. This liberal bent could be really good for the LGBT community if the Prop 8 trial ever comes before the Supreme Court.

“I’ve been a Democrat all my life, my political views are generally progressive,” she told Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham Tuesday.

When another Republican, Sen. Tom Coburn, pointed out, “You’re very pro-choice. You believe in a woman’s right to choose. You believe in gender-mixed marriages or gay marriage,” Kagan didn’t disagree.

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Sarah

Sarah lives in Chicago with her partner and her big white Great Dane. She is a lawyer by day and a beer brewer/bread baker/knitter by night. She & her partner are currently learning how to grow their own food, and eventually they hope to move to a small farm outside the city. In 2009-2010, before jetting off to law school, Sarah was Autostraddle's Managing Editor.

Sarah has written 127 articles for us.

14 Comments

    • i know right i’m getting nervous! is the other shoe gonna drop? Because I cannot emotionally handle anything that is not spectacular happening today.

      • The fifth is now over. That day was nothing but pure awesome. There’s no other shoe to drop, and it’s now the sixth – a day with the potential to be spectacular in other ways.

  3. Well, that was easy.

    The Senate needs to get rid of the filibuster. The majority should not have to be 60. The Republicans’ hypocrisy is so vast that they have engaged in more filibusters in the last 4 years than the previous 3 sessions combined. And yet they tried to get rid of the filibuster back when they were in power in 2005. Self-serving hacks.

    • But probably my favourite west wing episode if I had to pick a favourite even though don’t have a favourite was The Stackhouse Filibuster.

  4. fuckin right doggie!

    long live the way America is supposed to be!!

    A black President, 3 3 female S.C. justices, and EQUALITY!!!

  6. Gender-mixed marriage? What exactly is that referring to? Pardon my ignorance. Isn’t that hetero marriage? Or like, gender-mixed-aka-not-the-norm marriage?

  7. Harvey Milk is probably having fun with all the unicorns in heaven.

    and i’m so goddamn happy right now it’s ridiculous.

Comments are closed.