Elena Kagan, born on April 28, 1960, in New York City, grew up in a Jewish family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Her father, Robert, was an attorney specializing in housing and real estate law, while her mother, Gloria, was a public school teacher who later became a homemaker. Kagan has two brothers, one a college professor and the other a documentary filmmaker. She attended the prestigious Hunter College High School, excelling academically and developing an early interest in law and public service. Known for her wit and intellectual rigor, Kagan's upbringing in a progressive, intellectually stimulating environment shaped her path toward a career in legal academia and public policy.

Kagan's higher education began at Princeton University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1981. She then studied at Worcester College, Oxford, as a Harry S. Truman Scholar, obtaining a Master of Philosophy in 1983. Returning to the United States, she attended Harvard Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1986 and serving as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, she clerked for Judge Abner Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall from 1987 to 1988. She briefly practiced law at the firm Williams & Connolly before joining the faculty at the University of Chicago Law School in 1991 as an assistant professor.

In 1995, Kagan entered public service as associate White House counsel in the Clinton administration, later becoming a domestic policy advisor until 1999. She returned to Harvard Law School in 2001 as a visiting professor, becoming a full professor in 2003 and dean from 2003 to 2009—the first woman and first openly Jewish dean in the school's history. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her U.S. Solicitor General, a position she held until 2010, when she was nominated and confirmed as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the fourth woman to serve on the Court. Kagan is recognized for her moderate liberal jurisprudence, pragmatic approach to constitutional interpretation, and collaborative style among colleagues.