The next nominee for the US Supreme Court Will be solicitor general and former Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan.
If the Anna Nicole Smith Probate Litigation and Trust Dispute case returns to the Supreme Court next term or any other contested estate related claim reaches the Supreme Court if confirmed she would be one of the 9 justices presiding over the case. The court does not receive many trust and estate cases although a related one is likely to come before the court in what would be her lifetime tenure regarding whether there is a constitutional right to gay marriage. If there was a person who died intestate while with their partner would pass as if they were married in the same way that an estate now passes when a typical spouse passes away. Florida law does not recognize gay marriages from an inheritance rights perspective or for Florida intestate succession although if the Supreme Court found that there was a federal legal right and states could not prevent that it would have a significant impact on estate planning and probate estates in Florida and throughout the country.
As a 50 year old woman when she likely is appointed it will be a lifetime appointment so she could serve up to 4 decades on the court so there would be trust and estate disputes which come before her during that time and other estate related issues. One other related issue which may arise in the near future would be whether the estate tax could be retroactively revised for 2010 if the government sought to do so. As the year progresses without action it is appearing less likely it will occur although it has been a hotly discussed issue of whether is no tax as there currently is none for estate tax whether it could be revived retroactively.
For a Wall Street Journal article about her with her voicing her opinions on the issues see Ashby Jones May 10 Elana Kagan, in her own words.
Here is a link to a 2 minute video and article of various news stations discussing the selection from Politico.com Click the video button on the left of the screen to see the video.
