The Senate confirmed Elena Kagan on Thursday by a vote of 63-37. She will be the nation’s 112th Supreme Court justice and Barack Obama’s second appointment. Once she takes her oaths, it will be the first time, despite her impressive résumé, that Kagan has ever been a judge.

Hopefully, now that she’s got the top job and lifetime tenure, Kagan will go on the record with an opinion. — PZS

CNN:

Solicitor General Elena Kagan was easily confirmed Thursday as the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, completing the 50-year-old native New Yorker’s climb to the peak of the American legal profession.

The 63-37 vote was more than enough to blunt any possibility of a last-minute Republican delay or filibuster. Opposition during three days of Senate floor debate was relatively subdued.

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