This afternoon, the President attended Justice Kagan’s Investiture Ceremony:
Showing posts with label Elena Kagan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elena Kagan. Show all posts
West Wing Week: Mailbag Day, Summer Edition
While this edition of West Wing Week was focused on questions from the American people, we want to make sure you still have access to information on everything that happened this week at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This week, the President focused on education with a speech at the University of Texas, gave an address from the White House on leading the world in college graduate numbers, and signed the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. The President also congratulated the New Orleans Saints on their Super Bowl Championship, signed the Manufacturing Enhancement Act, met with his National Security Team to discuss Iraq and honored our next Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
Friday, August 6, 2010
- The President honors next Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan
- The President speaks on the latest jobs numbers
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
- The President speaks about Higher Education in Austin
- The President welcomes Super Bowl Champions the New Orleans Saints to the White House
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
- The President signs the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act
- The President remarks on saving 160,000 teacher jobs
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The White House Asked, You Answered: Women You Know That Break Barriers
Following the historic confirmation of Elena Kagan, the White House Council on Women and Girls asked you to tell us about other path-breaking women. In collaboration with GOOD, we asked: How do the women you know continue to break barriers?
Here's what some of our Twitter and Facebook fans had to say:
Katy Ferry My mother, Andrea Pennington, was the first female judge in Mobile County, AL.
Kittura Dior The late Dr. C. DeLores Tucker was the first African American woman to serve as Secretary of State (under Governor Milton Shapp) of PA in the 1970s. She was also my great-aunt.
Joanna Del Valle Many of the women I know continue to break barriers through continued education. They also effectively create inspiration in their surrounding communities that empowers other women as well as the younger generation of young girls, teens & young adult women.
Sylvia Dana Atkinson To answer the question, Mary Kay Ash...one of the top three entrepreneurs of the 20th century is my role model. Now, as a Mary Kay consultant myself...I'm surrounded by the highest paid women in America, women of excellence, women who have found a way for themselves. Just by watching all these incredible women around me...my belief barriers are breaking down every day. You can do anything you decide to do.
Elizabeth Volz When I was young, Sally Ride went into space. It felt to me as if women had finally arrived. We could choose any career we wanted.
The White House Asks: How do the Women You Know Continue to Break Barriers?
On Saturday, Elena Kagan became the fourth female justice in history. "For nearly two centuries, there wasn't a single woman on the Supreme Court,” said President Obama at an event honoring her confirmation, “When Elena was a clerk, there was just one. But when she takes her seat on that bench, for the first time in history, there will be three women serving on our nation's highest court."
"Today is a very proud day for women and girls all across America," said Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, in a blog post. As she explained, this is not the first time Kagan has broken a glass ceiling, "She is a trailblazer in her own right, serving as the first female Solicitor General of the United States, and before that, as the first woman Dean of Harvard Law School. Her remarkable career has earned her countless accolades from academia, the legal profession, and across the political spectrum."
"Today is a very proud day for women and girls all across America," said Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, in a blog post. As she explained, this is not the first time Kagan has broken a glass ceiling, "She is a trailblazer in her own right, serving as the first female Solicitor General of the United States, and before that, as the first woman Dean of Harvard Law School. Her remarkable career has earned her countless accolades from academia, the legal profession, and across the political spectrum." Today the White House is collaborating with GOOD to ask you:
How do the women you know continue to break barriers?
Tell us about the work of the path-breaking women you know on Facebook and on Twitter using @WhiteHouse. Later this week, we’ll highlight some of the most interesting responses on the Council's blog.
Honoring Elena Kagan
“This is a good day,” said the President this afternoon. And it was, especially for Elena Kagan, who was being congratulated on her on confirmation as the next Supreme Court Justice. He thanked the other Justices in attendance for coming, and thanked the Senate – in particular Judiciary Chairman Leahy – for their work in the process.
The President noted the bipartisanship in the final vote and recounted the broad support her nomination received across the ideological spectrum:
These folks may not agree on much, but they’ve all been impressed, as I have, by Elena’s formidable intellect and path-breaking career -- as an acclaimed scholar and presidential advisor, as the first woman to serve as Dean of the Harvard Law School, and most recently as Solicitor General. They admire how, while she could easily have settled into a comfortable practice in corporate law, she chose instead to devote her life to public service. They appreciate her even-handedness and open-mindedness, and her excellent -- and often irreverent -- sense of humor.
These are traits that she happens to share with the last Solicitor General who went on to become a Supreme Court Justice -- one for whom Elena clerked, and whom she considers one of her heroes -- Justice Thurgood Marshall. And we are very proud to have Justice Marshall’s widow here today joining us. (Applause.)
In a tribute she wrote after Justice Marshall’s death, Elena recalled how she and her fellow clerks took turns standing guard when his casket lay in state at the Supreme Court -- and how 20,000 people stood in a line that stretched around the block to pay their respects. They were people from every background and every walk of life: black, white, rich and poor, young and old. Many brought their children, hoping to impress upon them the lessons of Justice Marshall’s extraordinary life. Some left notes, some left flowers. One mourner left a worn slip opinion of Brown v. Board of Education.
It is, to this day, a moving reminder that the work of our highest Court shapes not just the character of our democracy, but the most fundamental aspects of our daily lives -- how we work, how we worship, whether we can speak freely and live fully, whether those words put to paper more than two centuries ago will truly mean something for each of us in our time.
The President noted the bipartisanship in the final vote and recounted the broad support her nomination received across the ideological spectrum:
These folks may not agree on much, but they’ve all been impressed, as I have, by Elena’s formidable intellect and path-breaking career -- as an acclaimed scholar and presidential advisor, as the first woman to serve as Dean of the Harvard Law School, and most recently as Solicitor General. They admire how, while she could easily have settled into a comfortable practice in corporate law, she chose instead to devote her life to public service. They appreciate her even-handedness and open-mindedness, and her excellent -- and often irreverent -- sense of humor.
These are traits that she happens to share with the last Solicitor General who went on to become a Supreme Court Justice -- one for whom Elena clerked, and whom she considers one of her heroes -- Justice Thurgood Marshall. And we are very proud to have Justice Marshall’s widow here today joining us. (Applause.)
In a tribute she wrote after Justice Marshall’s death, Elena recalled how she and her fellow clerks took turns standing guard when his casket lay in state at the Supreme Court -- and how 20,000 people stood in a line that stretched around the block to pay their respects. They were people from every background and every walk of life: black, white, rich and poor, young and old. Many brought their children, hoping to impress upon them the lessons of Justice Marshall’s extraordinary life. Some left notes, some left flowers. One mourner left a worn slip opinion of Brown v. Board of Education.
It is, to this day, a moving reminder that the work of our highest Court shapes not just the character of our democracy, but the most fundamental aspects of our daily lives -- how we work, how we worship, whether we can speak freely and live fully, whether those words put to paper more than two centuries ago will truly mean something for each of us in our time.
President Obama on the Confirmation of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court: "An Affirmation of Her Character and Her Temperament"
It’s been just under three months since most Americans were introduced to Elena Kagan by the President and in a quick video here at WhiteHouse.gov. Today in Chicago, the President was able to mark her confirmation by the Senate as the next Supreme Court Justice:THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I am very pleased that the Senate has just voted to confirm Elena Kagan as our nation’s 112th Supreme Court Justice. And I want to thank the Senate Judiciary Committee, particularly its Chairman, Senator Leahy, for giving her a full, fair and timely hearing.
Over the past two months, the committee has scrutinized Elena’s record as a scholar, as a law school dean, as a presidential advisor, and as Solicitor General. And after 17 hours of testimony during which she answered more than 540 questions, I’d say they got a pretty good look at Elena Kagan. They’ve gotten a good sense of her formidable intelligence, her rich understanding of our Constitution, her commitment to the rule of law, and her excellent -- and occasionally irreverent -- sense of humor. And they have come to understand why, throughout her career, she has earned the respect and admiration of folks from across the political spectrum -- an achievement reflected in today’s bipartisan vote.
But today’s vote wasn’t just an affirmation of Elena’s intellect and accomplishments. It was also an affirmation of her character and her temperament; her open-mindedness and even-handedness; her determination to hear all sides of every story and consider all possible arguments. Because Elena understands that the law isn’t just an abstraction or an intellectual exercise. She knows that the Supreme Court’s decisions shape not just the character of our democracy, but the circumstances of our daily lives -- or, as she once put it, that “behind the law there are stories -- stories of people’s lives as shaped by the law, stories of people’s lives as might be changed by law.”
So I am confident that Elena Kagan will make an outstanding Supreme Court Justice. And I am proud, also, of the history we’re making with her appointment. For nearly two centuries, there wasn’t a single woman on our nation’s highest court. When Elena takes her seat on that bench, for the first time in our history, there will be three women.
It is, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently stated, “one of the most exhilarating developments” -- a sign of progress that I relish not just as a father who wants limitless possibilities for my two daughters, but as an American proud that our Supreme Court will be more inclusive, more representative, and more reflective of us as a people than ever before.
Thanks very much, everybody.