Elena Kagan

SHE'S BEEN rumored for weeks as President Obama's likely choice to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, and yesterday Obama made it official by picking the administration's 50-year-old solicitor general, Elena Kagan, as his nominee. But, even though she's been all over the news cycle for 24 hours, there are still things you may not know about Kagan. Here are a dozen: 3. She is already giving Sen. Arlen Specter a giant headache! Back in February 2009, when the Pennsylvania senator was a Republican and gravely concerned about proving his bona fides to that party's right-wing primary voters, he joined 31 GOP colleagues in voting against Kagan as solicitor general in charge of arguing cases for the Obama administration before the Supreme Court.

ELENA KAGAN spent her first day on Capitol Hill last week meeting the senators who will vote on her nomination. One of them, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, took to the Senate floor to raise questions about whether she will be a captive of the White House she works for. "In our constitutional order, justices are not on anybody's team," McConnell said. "They have a very different role to play. As a Supreme Court justice, Ms. Kagan's job description would change dramatically.

Although the Senate Judiciary Committee's questioning of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has concluded, the committee will convene at 4 p.m. Thursday to hear from outside witnesses called by each party in support of or opposition to her confirmation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, which opened Monday, are expected to last much of the week and will be widely covered live on television and online.

Brain Food, C2 Sally Schwartz Friedman: At Penn 50th reunion, women graduates look back at a world transformed. Pop quiz: July 4th speeches. Insights and Observations, C3 Dick Polman: Afghanistan policy and the antiwar left. Buzz Bissinger: Thinking about America from the vantage point of a first-century Philadelphia. Editorials, C4 The Senate should confirm Elena Kagan, President Obama's nominee to replace John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.

MOST Philadelphians have no idea who Elena Kagan is. For all we know, she's never been to Philadelphia and she thinks Vinnie Fumo is the name of a character from "Guys and Dolls. " But Elena Kagan is an important person. She's the U.S. solicitor general, holder of a top position in the Justice Department. Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney's Office officially asked for Kagan's permission to file an appeal of Vince Fumo's 55-month travesty of a prison sentence. Kagan alone has the power in the next few months to decide whether the feds will pursue hard time for Vince or drop the matter and let his creampuff of a sentence stand.

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the nation's 112th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in a largely partisan 63-37 vote. Kagan, 50, the U.S. solicitor general, replaces the retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Once she is sworn into office, the Supreme Court will include for the first time in history three sitting female justices. She will become the youngest justice to join the court since Clarence Thomas in 1991. After three days of debate on the Senate floor, five Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Kagan, with one Democrat opposing her. Kagan received five fewer votes than Justice Sonia Sotomayor one year ago. Republicans supporting Kagan included Sens.

More than a few of us African Americans are not very liberal. We are born-again Christians, instill a strong work ethic in our children, and are aghast at others who game the system. Some of us voted for Ronald Reagan in 1984, because he was more optimistic than Walter Mondale; for George Bush the father in 1988, because he was more experienced than Michael Dukakis; and for George Bush the son in 2004, because John Kerry was too elitist. We wondered why the Republican Party did not encourage Gen. Colin Powell to become the first black president in 2000.

WHAT'S NEXT, renaming the Baltimore Airport? On the first day of confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan on Monday, Republican senators attacked, not the Supreme Court nominee, but the revered justice and civil-rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall, for whom Kagan once clerked (and for whom the airport is named). "Activist judge," "outcome-driven," out of the "mainstream," are just a few examples of the talk about Marshall. Reporters toted it up and found that Marshall, who died in 1993, was mentioned 35 times during the hearing.

COUNCILMAN Rizzo is bugged by criminal cops receiving pension benefits? Is anyone besides me bugged by the hypocrisy of a city councilman in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan questioning anyone's right to a pension? DROP was never intended for elected officials. The city says it's broke (and Rizzo has incredibly said he is open-minded about raising taxes) but he is going to collect almost $200,000 when he "retires" after this term. He still claims, however, that he may not retire but run for re-election next year.

WASHINGTON - Here's a thought that can't comfort President Obama: The fate of his health-care overhaul rests with five Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices. If they stand together, his most sweeping domestic achievement could be struck down. But the good news for Obama is that he probably needs only one of the five to side with him to win approval of the law's crucial centerpiece, the requirement that almost everyone in this country has insurance or pays a penalty.

By Arlen Specter Several Republican presidential candidates have vowed to rein in the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary if elected, presenting the latest in a series of such challenges from both the left and the right. Justice Antonin Scalia was chastised for speaking to the House Tea Party Caucus, and both he and Justice Clarence Thomas were criticized for associating with wealthy conservatives such as the Koch brothers, who stand to benefit from the court's decision to allow corporate campaign contributions.

By Walter Olson In the run-up to the Supreme Court's opinion this week in Wal-Mart v. Dukes , the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had given the go-ahead to a lawsuit on behalf of a vast number of female Wal-Mart employees, each of whom had supposedly suffered harm as a result of the giant retailer's way of doing business. In the minds of some advocates, the only question remaining was whether the Supreme Court would stand in the way of justice. Prejudging Wal-Mart's guilt without so much as a trial, the left-leaning Alliance for Justice asked: "Will the Supreme Court Protect Wal-Mart's Discrimination Against Women?"

WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the nation's 112th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in a largely partisan 63-37 vote. Kagan, 50, the U.S. solicitor general, replaces the retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Once she is sworn into office, the Supreme Court will include for the first time in history three sitting female justices. She will become the youngest justice to join the court since Clarence Thomas in 1991. After three days of debate on the Senate floor, five Republicans crossed party lines to vote for Kagan, with one Democrat opposing her. Kagan received five fewer votes than Justice Sonia Sotomayor one year ago. Republicans supporting Kagan included Sens.

Group sues to halt N.Y. mosque plan NEW YORK - The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a national political flash point and a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the 9/11 attacks. The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit in a Manhattan state court over a decision by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission to let developers tear down a building to make way for the mosque two blocks from ground zero.

Candidates must speak to all groups When Rep. Joe Sestak addressed the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the group was working with the FBI, a pretty good credential for a congressman to base a decision on whether to accept an invitation to speak to its local chapter. As an elected official, Sestak represents everyone in his district, including people with whom he may disagree. It is a sign of his maturity that he is willing to listen to everyone. I have seen him tell a pro-Palestinian constituent that he would continue to support Israel - not a typical vote-getting political move.

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist Lindsey Graham is all of 5-foot-7 with his shoes on, but these days he towers above his fellow Republican senators. As the Judiciary Committee held its vote on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan last week, the seats on either side of Graham were empty. Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona and John Cornyn of Texas, along with Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, showed their contempt for President Obama and his nominee by skipping the vote - just as they had done 51 weeks earlier for the vote on Sonia Sotomayor.