WASHINGTON -- Solicitor General Elena Kagan would be the first person in 38 years to join the U.S. Supreme Court without first serving as a judge. She's had a year as perhaps the next best thing.

As the Obama administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, Kagan has argued six cases before the people who will become her colleagues if she wins Senate confirmation.

In nominating Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, President Barack Obama has chosen a brilliant legal scholar with liberal views and conservative friends. Kagan, 50, already has won Senate confirmation once, after Obama nominated her to be solicitor general, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer...