Elena Kagan ’81 as an undergraduate

The Senate voted 63-37 to confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan ’81 as the next Supreme Court justice, a historic move that marks the first time three women will serve simultaneously on the nation’s highest court.

The nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan ’81 to the Supreme Court was endorsed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in a 13-6 vote that went mostly along party lines.  

Elena Kagan ’81 got drunk on election night in 1980. Standing in the Brooklyn Academy of Music with her vodka and tonic, she watched Walter Cronkite usher in the news that Democratic candidate Elizabeth Holtzman had lost the race for one of New York’s Senate seats. And then she sat down and wept.

Three decades later, Kagan is the first female solicitor general of the United States and one of the leading candidates for President Barack Obama’s nomination to fill the seat of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, who is due to retire when the court’s term ends this summer.

United States Solicitor General Elena Kagan ’81 is rumored to be among the top three candidates to fill Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens’s seat on the bench, following his announcement on Friday that he will retire when the court’s term ends this summer.

This piece, authored by Elena Kagan ’81 during her tenure at The Daily Princetonian, was published on Nov. 10, 1980.

The following piece, authored by editorial chairman Elena Kagan ’81 along with editorial editors Dave Hardison ’81 and Sally Swenson ’81, was published on Jan. 21, 1981, the last day of Kagan’s tenure at The Daily Princetonian.

There are days when the three of us have trudged back to The Daily Princetonian edit office, tried futilely to turn off the heat that makes even the furniture sweat, breathed in the cigarette smoke that one of us insists on exhaling, and wondered why we were here. Days like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 4, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

Over the past few years, the field of women’s studies has gained ever-increasing recognition and acceptance at universities throughout the country. But at Princeton, little has been done to include this discipline in the mainstream of the university’s curriculum. While other Ivy League institutions have created women’s studies programs and while Princeton students themselves have shown a growing interest in the field, the university has steadfastly clung to an inadequate and outdated approach to this expanding discipline. Happily, there is now a way to change all this. If the recently formed advisory committee on women’s studies recommends the creation of a full-fledged women’s studies program, the university may be persuaded to close this gap in its curriculum.

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 20, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

The former confidence of high-level university officials over the outcome of Sally Frank’s sex discrimination complaint has apparently turned to anxiety. As reported yesterday, University Counsel Thomas Wright believes that the Frank complaint, filed against the university and the three all-male eating clubs, stands a good chance of being upheld. As well it should. If Cottage, Ivy and Tiger Inn wish to continue excluding women from their membership, they must act as fully private institutions, cutting the umbilical cord which currently allows them free access to university services.

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 12, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

An anti-registration, anti-draft, anti-war movement again sweeping the country? Not quite, unfortunately. The only “movement” we can see today is in the other direction — toward an era in which myopic and over-sensitive “national pride” precludes the thoughtful search for alternatives to an unnecessary draft registration. At today’s noon rally, however, Princeton students can demonstrate that they view registration as a dangerous and unacceptable method of settling our current problems.

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 8, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

A university, more than any other type of institution, ought to promote and encourage the free exchange of ideas, whether intellectual, religious or political. Centers of higher learning should, after all, be distinguished by a spirit of inquiry and investigation, and this spirit can only thrive in an atmosphere of unfettered debate of dissenting opinions. Yet, in the Labor Party case now before the New Jersey Supreme Court, Princeton has asserted its right to control campus discussion of important issues by limiting the access of outsiders to the university. We find this position in blatant conflict with the ideal of free inquiry which should be central to Princeton’s being.

The following is an unsigned editorial published by The Daily Princetonian on Feb. 4, 1980, during the tenure of Elena Kagan ’81 as editorial chairman.

Throughout the coming week, Princeton’s most lingering tradition — Bicker — will once again make its presence felt throughout the university community. This year, 551 sophomores registered to bicker, approximately 45 percent more than did last February. We find this increase extremely dismaying.