Stints in Court May Yield Clues to a Style (Elena Kagan with oral argument audio clashing w Roberts)

Solicitor General Elena Kagan arrived to hear President Barack Obama announce Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee for the Supreme Court in May in Washington.


Ms. Kagan, a former dean of the Harvard Law School, has never served as judge and so has no paper trail of judicial opinions. Her academic writings are dense, technical and largely nonideological. But a look at her service as solicitor general, the federal government’s top appellate lawyer, provides unusually direct insights into how she would interact with her new colleagues were she appointed to the court...

Ms. Kagan appears popular with the justices, and they seem to appreciate her candor, quick mind and informal style. But she tangles regularly with Chief Justice Roberts, who has emerged as her primary antagonist, frequently criticizing her tactical decisions and trying to corner her at oral arguments. In February, for instance, at an argument about a law making it a crime to provide material support to terrorists, Chief Justice Roberts tussled with Ms. Kagan over what he called a shift in the government’s position.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15scotus.html


And it begins... If she is nominated I hope that relationship continues to be oppositional, for the sake of the country.