Solicitor General Elena Kagan, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, inherits a Court seat possibly the most significant single seat in the Court’s history!
In the past 94 years, the seat she takes over has had exactly THREE people in it, with all three being giants in the Court’s history!
From 1916 to 1939, Louis Brandeis, an appointee of Woodrow Wilson, served on the Court. The first Jewish Justice, and arguably the second greatest Justice in the Court’s history (after Chief Justice John Marshall), Brandeis promoted the concept of Sociological Jurisprudence in the legal system, which has had a dramatic effect on the whole history of the Court long after his time on that body ended!
Brandeis was succeeded by William O. Douglas, appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and served from 1939-1975. As the longest serving Supreme Court Justice ever, 36 and a half years, Douglas promoted the Brandeis liberal view of the Court, and is usually considered among the top ten Supreme Court Justices of all time!
John Paul Stevens succeeded Douglas in 1975, appointed by Gerald Ford, and will leave the Court this summer as the second oldest Justice ever (only surpassed by Oliver Wendell Holmes), and also the second longest serving Justice (only behind Douglas by about two years service). He will certainly be ranked historically as one of the 25 greatest Justices in the Court’s history!
So Elena Kagan takes on a major responsibility, to fill the shoes of three judicial giants, who have together had a overwhelming impact on Supreme Court history! May we wish her the best as she pursues fulfilling an imposing challenge!