Justice Kagan faces first Supreme Court test Monday

[usregimechange]

The Justices' Conference Room, where the Justices meet to discuss cases heard before the Court (HowStuffWorks, Inc.)


WASHINGTON — For months before she became a Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan, then the U.S. solicitor general, was nearly as much a fixture in the majestic courtroom as the nine justices.

Today, she joins her new colleagues for the first time in an arguably more hallowed space: the justices' private, oak-paneled conference room. It is where, with no law clerks or secretaries present, they decide which cases to take up and, later, how they should be resolved. In the first of these private sessions for the new term, which officially begins Oct. 4, the justices will sort through thousands of appeals filed over the summer to decide which should be granted hearings.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2010-09-27-justices27_ST_N.htm

[onehandle]

1. Does it matter? It's still a right-wing corporate court.

5-4. Always for the rich.

[usregimechange]

2. For now

[elleng]

3. and she's the 'junior,' so will have to open the door (and get the coffee!)

[Poll_Blind]

4. Ha! She ain't gettin' NOBODY'S coffee! But I wouldn't be surprised if she carried water for...

...the continued erosion of Constitutional rights vis-a-vis the War On Terra™. I think it was during some of the back-and-forths between she and Orren Hatch...just made my heart sink. The bits where (I believe it was he) was pressing her on whether or not she'd take findings of the Senate into account in making her rulings. If you watched it all, you might remember what I'm talking about.

Sad.

PB

[Hekate]

5. First, it's a tradition, not a sexist thing. Second, you do what you have to do to get confirmed....

...otherwise, you don't get confirmed. That's just a fact.

Hekate

[Tx4obama]

7. Like Hekate said...

When the justices are in their conference room, it is the job of the newest member to service the coffee and open the door when someone knocks.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

In the justices' private conferences, the current practice is for them to speak and vote in order of seniority from the Chief Justice first to the most junior Associate Justice last. The most junior Associate Justice in these conferences is tasked with any menial labor the justices may require as they convene alone, such as answering the door of their conference room, serving coffee, and transmitting the orders of the Court to the court's clerk. Justice Joseph Story served the longest as the junior justice, from February 3, 1812, to September 1, 1823, for a total of 4,228 days. Justice Stephen Breyer follows close behind, with 4,199 days when Samuel Alito joined the court on January 31, 2006.

[mr_liberal]

6. First big case is about video game violence.

Its a free speech case so it should be right up her alley. Now well find out how expansive her views of the 1st amendment really are.

We'll find out more about Sotomayor as well.

Ginsburg should retire, she's risking being replaced by a Republican president.