By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Upper West Sider Elena Kagan was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday to become the fourth woman on the Supreme Court, clearing the path for a full Senate vote in the coming weeks, the Associated Press reported.
Sen. Lindsey Graham was the lone Pepublican to vote in favor of Kagan's nomination in at 13-6 decision, the AP said.
"What's in Elena Kagan's heart is that of a good person who adopts a philosophy I disagree with," Graham told the AP. "She will serve this nation honorably, and it would not have been someone I would have chosen, but the person who did choose, President Obama, I think chose wisely."
Graham, who also voted yea during Justice Sonia Sotomayor's Senate confirmation, made a strange request of Kagan during her hearings, the Wall Street Journal noted. He asked the Solicitor General to write a letter of recommendation on behalf of Miguel Estrada, a one-time nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals who was eventually nixed by Democratic senators.
Kagan obliged the Senator, writing that Estrada would make an "excellent addition to any federal court," the Journal reported.
The Journal did not report that there was a connection between the letter and Graham's vote for Kagan, but noted that it would be "one heck of a reference in his [Estrada's] back pocket" should a Republican take the presidency next term.
If confirmed by the full Senate, Kagan's ascent to the high court would mark the first time that three women sat on the bench.
