Official documents have shown that U. S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once strongly supported a religious freedom law later struck down by the court she hopes to join.

The New York Times reported on Friday that in a 1996 memorandum released Friday Kagan, then an associate White House counsel, put herself firmly with advocates of broader interpretations of religious freedom, even at the expense of an anti-discrimination law.

It was also reported that at issue was whether the government could force a landlord to rent housing to an unwed couple if doing so violated the landlord's religious beliefs against cohabitation outside of marriage. Kagan wrote in the memorandum allowing the government to do so was "quite outrageous."

The case involved a California state law banning discrimination in housing on the basis of marital status that was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

According to the reports, the document was among 42,000 pages sent by former President Bill Clinton's library in Little Rock, Ark., to the Senate Judiciary Committee weighing Kagan's nomination.

Several of the documents concerned religious-freedom issues, often hotly debated in Washington.

The Times also noted that as a White House lawyer, Kagan provided advice to a president with his own political agenda, so her analyses may not have reflected her personal views.

The Times further said that Kagan has never served as a judge and done only limited scholarly writing, so the documents are considered an opportunity to gauge her legal thinking. (With Inputs from Agencies)