Earlier this week, President Obama called Republican Senator Orrin Hatch to discuss the vacancy on the Court left by Justice Souter. According to Hatch’s office, the president “assured Hatch…that he would appoint a pragmatist, not a radical, to this important position.” Among the names considered at the top of President Obama’s short-list is that of Elena Kagan, the recently confirmed solicitor general and former dean of the Harvard Law School. Yesterday THE WEEKLY STANDARD obtained a copy of Elena Kagan’s senior thesis, written almost thirty years ago while an undergraduate at Princeton. The title of the thesis: “To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933” Obviously, one imagines that Kagan’s views have evolved significantly over the last three decades, but given Obama’s stated aversion to radicalism, it’s certainly worth noting the radical roots of the nation’s top lawyer. In her acknowledgments, Kagan writes: