BLT: SG Kagan Pays Tribute to Justice Souter

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Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who is at or near the top of many lists of possible replacements for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, paid tribute to the justice on Friday, describing him as "an extraordinary justice" whose presence on the Court will be missed.

Kagan spoke at a reception in her honor at Georgetown University Law Center sponsored by the school's Supreme Court Institute, which held moot courts for lawyers in 92 percent of the cases argued this term. The former Harvard Law School dean was sworn in as the 45th solicitor general and the first woman in the job on March 20. (Separately, Kagan last week gave her first press interview since taking office to us at National Law Journal. It appears here.)

Speaking just a few hours after Souter formally told President Barack Obama that he was retiring at the end of the term, Kagan spoke of watching Souter during oral arguments in the last six weeks. Kagan is following the practice of some recent SGs in watching every oral argument in which a deputy or associate in her office is arguing. In his questioning and discussion with advocates Souter us "incisive, acute" Kagan said, and displays "remarkable and completely ingenuous humility" by confessing he might not understand an advocate's argument or might have gotten something wrong.

Kagan also recalled Souter's participation as a judge in an Ames Moot Court competition at Harvard in November 2005, not long after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. One of the moot court teams had named itself the Rehnquist Team, which prompted Souter after the competition to give what Kagan said was "the most beautiful, graceful elegy" she had ever heard, recalling Rehnquist as a justice and as a man. "You wouldn't expect everyone at Harvard Law School to be weeping at the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist," Kagan said, but they were, because of Souter's moving tribute.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/05/sg-kagan-pays-tribute-to-souter.html