Elena Kagan is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kagan is the Court's fourth female justice.

Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as Associate White House Counsel, and later as policy adviser, under President Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its first female dean.

In 2009, Kagan became the first female Solicitor General. On May 10, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy arising from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, and she resigned her position as Solicitor General in August 2010 upon her confirmation to the Supreme Court. After confirmation, Kagan was sworn in on August 7, 2010, by Chief Justice John G. Roberts in a private ceremony. Kagan's formal investiture ceremony before a special sitting of the United States Supreme Court took place on October 1, 2010.

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