CNN.com
May 10, 2010 11:46 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- President Obama named U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Monday as his nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, author of "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court," talked to CNN.com about Kagan, his former law school classmate.
CNN: What is Elena Kagan's strength?
Jeffrey Toobin: Elena Kagan is known as a consensus builder. During her time as dean of Harvard Law School, she united a deeply divided faculty. Clearly, the hope from the president is that she will do for the Supreme Court what she did for the Harvard faculty, if that's possible.
CNN: You knew her at Harvard. What is she like?
Toobin: Smart, funny, self-confident, extremely intelligent but not obnoxious about it. She's always been a well-grounded person who brings out the best in others around her.
CNN: Some African-American groups and commentators have criticized her appointments at Harvard, charging that almost all of the people she hired were white and of those, only six were women. Could that be a factor in her confirmation?
Toobin: The upper reaches of the legal profession are still dominated by men, so the talent pool still skews that way. Under Kagan, the diversity of the faculty at Harvard changed, but not as fast as the rest of the country.
Full Interview: http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/05/10/toobin.kagan/index.html
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