Kagan offers practicality to arguments, settles in as new justice

WASHINGTON — She sits at the far end of the bench and, as the newest justice and first appointee in nearly 40 years without prior judicial experience, Elena Kagan could have found herself on the fringe of the Supreme Court's fast-paced oral arguments.

But she has shown after two rounds of arguments and 10 cases that she can work her way easily into the Q-and-A and cut to the heart of an issue.

From the start, Kagan, a former U.S. solicitor general and Harvard law dean, has showed a veteran's sense of timing. Wearing her black robe without adornment, she enters the fray without stepping on other justices' lines. In fact, she makes use of them.

Kagan asks questions focused on the legal issue yet often with a practical twist.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/supremecourtjustices/2010-11-15-elena-kagan-supreme-court_N.htm

but I was pleased with her questions on the violence in video games case. She seems likely to vote for free speech in that case, but we'll see.

Ive also been pleased so far with Sotomayor, on that same case and others.