U. of C. law faculty didn't back Kagan

[n2doc]

By Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau
May 30, 2010

The first four decades of Elena Kagan's life had been a chain of successes, from her student days at Princeton, Oxford and Harvard Law to her turns as Supreme Court clerk, law school professor and presidential adviser.

Then on the brink of her 40th birthday came a setback.

As she prepared to leave the Clinton White House in 1999, she wanted to return to teaching law at the University of Chicago, where she had won tenure four years earlier.

But since she had given up the tenured spot by staying in Washington so long, she needed a faculty vote to approve her return.

The job offer never came.

The criticism leveled against her at the time echoes the knock on her now as she prepares for Senate hearings on her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court: Her volume of scholarly writing is thin.

The setback proved temporary. Kagan took a visiting position at Harvard Law School and quickly rose to become dean. Similarly, the current criticism is unlikely to amount to anything more than grist for some Senate questions before the confirmation vote. But the incident illustrates something about Kagan and the law: She is far less a theorist than she is a practitioner and problem solver.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-kagan-chicago-20100530,0,1471697.story

[philly_bob]

1. Could also be a product of right-wing "Chicago School" influence. (nt)

[nichomachus]

2. "She is good at advising people, fixing things, putting programs in place," he said.

Pretty much the perfect description of an activist.