Elena Kagan ’81 is the Freshest Potential SCOTUS Nominee

Ivy League diplomas and hotshot reputations define President Obama's three potential nominees to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced on Friday that he would be retiring after 35 years on the bench.The three leading candidates to replace him -- Obama is considering about ten names in all, the White House says -- are Elena Kagan '81, Merrick Garland, and Diane Wood.  If Kagan is selected, she'll be the third consecutive Supreme Court Justice nominee to be a Princeton alumna/us.Kagan is currently Obama's solicitor general (the administration's top advocate before the Supreme Court), a position that has already let her practice  that tricky process of  Senate approval. During her confirmation hearings, Kagan drew some criticism for arguing that battlefield law, or indefinite detention without a trial, should apply even if an enemy was captured outside of the physical battlefield.That little black mark aside, Kagan's basically a shoe-in.  Why? She's super youthful. Coming in at a vibrant 49, Kagan could wear the robe for decades."I tend to think of all these people as being in their prime," Princeton University Provost Christopher Eisgruber said in an interview, "but there's a school of thinking that the president should look at the youngest nominee."Kagan will turn 50 in 17 days, but she's definitely still a tiger.While at Princeton, Kagan gained admittance to the Woodrow Wilson School, but walked out of the doors of Robertson within three weeks to switch to a history major. "It never bothered me that history didn't have a direct path to anywhere," Kagan told the PAW in 2007. "I figured I could do whatever I wanted afterward."image: Wikipedia Commons