The US Senate Thursday approved the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in a 63-37 vote, a historic move that gives women one-third of the seats on the nine-member court for the first time, reported the dpa. Kagan, 50, is the second woman nominated by US President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate after last year's appointment of Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor. The third woman is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Obama welcomed the vote, saying Kagan will be an "outstanding" member of the high court and has a sound understanding of the US Constitution. "Throughout her career, she has earned the respect and admiration of all folks across the political spectrum," he said. In the debate leading up to the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a centre-left Democrat, welcomed the prospect that a "full third of the bench will for the first time be women." "That's really progress," he said, recounting how difficult it has been for women judges to gain a foothold on the legal career ladder to the rarefied position of Supreme Court justice. He noted that it took a full 200 years before the country's first female judge, Sandra Day O'Connor, joined the court in 1981. She retired from the court in 2006. Kagan's approval sailed through with support from a handful of Republicans.
