Elena Kagan
Associate Justice
Miami Connection
Kagan joined the Supreme Court majority in a key ruling allowing Miami to sue banks for predatory lending practices that harmed minority homebuyers, reducing property values and straining city resources during the 2008 financial crisis. Earlier in her career, she advocated for free speech protections in the 2 Live Crew obscenity case tied to Miami's hip-hop scene. Her jurisprudence has influenced Florida legal discussions, including personal jurisdiction precedents cited in University of Miami Law Review analyses.
About
Elena Kagan was born and raised in New York City, graduating summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1981 with a degree in history, followed by advanced studies at Oxford and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Her career includes clerkships for Judge Abner Mikva and Justice Thurgood Marshall, professorships at the University of Chicago and Harvard Law Schools where she became the first female dean, and roles in the Clinton administration. In 2009, she served as the first woman Solicitor General before her 2010 appointment by President Obama as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has no personal residence or direct professional role in Miami or South Florida. Currently, she serves on the nation's highest court.