NBLSA Supports President Obama's Nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court

Washington, DC (June 27, 2010) - In early May of this year, President Obama named former Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to be the nation's 112th Supreme Court Justice. Ms. Kagan is Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens and join Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor on the bench.

President Obama nominated Ms. Kagan to be Solicitor General back in 2009. She was confirmed by the senate in March 2009, and is the first woman to hold the position. As Solicitor General, Ms. Kagan was responsible for all aspects of government litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court. She was also responsible for deciding which cases merit appeal in the lower courts. During her time as Solicitor General, she tenaciously defended the nation's equal opportunity and civil rights laws. Mr. Harold H. Koh, current legal advisor to the Department of State, offered his support of Ms. Kagan upon her nomination. Support was also offered from former Attorney General Janet Reno, President and Director-Counsel John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and several former solicitors general.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ms. Kagan clerked in the circuit court and eventually clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. As a White House aide under the Clinton administration, she worked hard to strengthen hate crimes legislation and civil rights enforcement. She taught at the University of Chicago and joined the Harvard Law faculty as the Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law and the first woman Dean. During her tenure at Harvard, Ms. Kagan worked hard to bring diversity to the faculty and student body. Her colleagues at Harvard have praised her for her superb interpersonal skills and ability to build consensus across ideological lines. Professor Charles Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and a former NBLSA National Chair, has offered his unequivocal support of Ms. Kagan's nomination, stating, "Understanding and appreciating the full depth and breadth of her record is important in moving forward, and I hope that there will be little, if any, doubt that Elena Kagan has been supportive of, committed to, and a devotee of issues of diversity and equal opportunity for all Americans."

Ms. Kagan recently sanctioned the filing of an amicus brief by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education in a Fifth Circuit case, Fisher v. University of Texas. The Fisher case is the first federal litigation challenging the use of affirmative action practices in higher education admissions since the Supreme Court's 2003 decision upholding the use of race in the University of Michigan Law School's admission process in Grutter v. Bollinger. Ms. Kagan has also submitted a brief in support of African-American firefighters who challenged a hiring test used by the City of Chicago under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in Lewis v. City of Chicago.

Ms. Kagan has been endorsed by the NAACP, The Coalition for Constitutional Values, and the Human Rights Campaign. After careful review of Ms. Kagan's record, NBLSA has also decided to support her nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman has set confirmation hearings for June 28th. NBLSA National Chair, Melinda Hightower offered commentary on Kagan's nomination stating, "We hope that the members of the Senate will give a fair evaluation of Ms. Kagan, and we look forward to her confirmation."

Press Contact:
Erica Washington
National Director of Public Relations
The National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA)
publicrelations@nblsa.org

About The National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA)

Founded in 1968, the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) is a national, non-profit organization created and designed to articulate and promote the professional needs and goals of Black law students; foster and encourage professional competence; focus upon the relationship of the Black attorney to the American legal system; instill in the Black attorney and law student a greater awareness of and commitment to the needs of the Black community; utilize member expertise to initiate a change within the legal system that will make it more responsive to the needs and concerns of the Black community; and do any and all things necessary and lawful in order to accomplish these goals.

NBLSA is the largest student-run organization in America and has approximately 200 chapters at law schools throughout the country. This represents almost every ABA accredited law school, plus several non-accredited law schools. These chapters represent nearly 6,000 Black law students in six regions that encompass 48 states including Hawaii and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Recently, NBLSA has established an international connection with Black law students in Canada, England, South Africa, and the Bahamas who have decided to model their student organizations after NBLSA.

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