On Thursday the US Senate confirmed Elena Kagan 63-37 to become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, with a handful of Republicans joining almost all Democrats in making her the fourth woman to serve on the high court.
When the court’s new term starts in October, Ms. Kagan, 50, will join Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor to make up the first three-woman bloc in the court’s history.