- published: 05 May 2014
- views: 2635
Georgetown University is a private research university in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Jesuit and Catholic university in the United States. Georgetown's main campus, located in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, is noted for Healy Hall, a National Historic Landmark in the Romanesque revival style. Georgetown operates a law center on Capitol Hill and auxiliary campuses in Italy, Turkey, and Qatar.
Georgetown's founding by John Carroll, America's first Catholic bishop, realized efforts to establish a Roman Catholic college in the province of Maryland that were repeatedly thwarted by religious persecution. The university expanded after the American Civil War under the leadership of Patrick Francis Healy, who came to be known as Georgetown's "second founder" despite having been born a slave. Jesuits have participated in the university's administration since 1805, a heritage Georgetown celebrates, but the university has always been governed independently of the Society of Jesus and of church authorities.
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law. As the second largest law school in the United States, Georgetown Law often touts the advantages of its wide range of program offerings and proximity to federal agencies and courts, including the Supreme Court.
Georgetown Law is one of the most prestigious institutions of legal education in the United States. The Law Center is one of the top ten most selective law schools in the United States, as well as one of the 14 law schools that consistently rank at the very top of U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings.
Georgetown Law is one of the T14 law schools, which have been consistently ranked in the top 14 by U.S. News & World Report since the inception of that magazine's law school rankings. In the 2013 edition, Georgetown was ranked the #13 law school in the nation overall. Additionally, it ranked #1 in clinical programs, #6 in environmental law, #5 in trial advocacy, #7 in healthcare law, #2 in international law, #2 in tax law (LL.M.), and #1 part-time J.D. program. This means that of the ten specialized programs that USNWR ranks separately, Georgetown Law received special distinction in seven of those programs, more than any other law school.
Elena Kagan (pronounced /ˈkeɪɡən/; born April 28, 1960) is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Kagan is the Court's 112th justice and fourth female justice.
Kagan was born and raised in New York City. After attending Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard Law School, she completed federal Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerkships. She began her career as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, leaving to serve as Associate White House Counsel, and later as policy adviser, under President Clinton. After a nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which expired without action, she became a professor at Harvard Law School and was later named its first female dean.
President Obama appointed her Solicitor General on January 26, 2009. On May 10, 2010, Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy from the impending retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens. After Senate confirmation, Kagan was sworn in on August 7, 2010, by Chief Justice John G. Roberts. Kagan's formal investiture ceremony before a special sitting of the United States Supreme Court took place on October 1, 2010.