Senate confirms Solicitor General Elena Kagan as Supreme Court Justice

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The U.S. Senate confirmed Solicitor General Elena Kagan as the 112th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court today on a vote of 63 to 37. Arizona's twin embarrassments, Jon Kyl and John McCain, voted against confirmation on specious grounds. Senate confirms Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court:

The Senate confirmed U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Thursday as the 112th justice to the Supreme Court, making her the fourth woman ever to sit on the high court.

[Kagan joins Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the first ever bloc of three women serving on the court at the same time.]

On a 63 to 37 vote, Kagan became President Obama's second lifetime appointment to the court in the past year — the vote was held a year after Sonia Sotomayor won 68 votes for her confirmation as the court's first Latina justice.

[During the roll call senators voted from their desks, a ceremonial move that is reserved only for the most important of votes.]

Five Republicans supported Kagan, 50, to succeed retired justice John Paul Stevens. One Democrat, Ben Nelson (Neb.), was opposed. Kagan, a self-described progressive, is not likely to tilt the balance of the court, given Stevens's role as a leading liberal jurist the past three decades.

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According to a White House aide, she will be sworn in at the court by Chief Justice John Roberts, possibly as early as Saturday.