Sotomayor Quickly Emerges as Talkative Justice

It was clear on the morning of the first day of the Supreme Court's latest term that new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor, was not going to fade into the background just because she's a rookie.

According to the Los Angeles Times, in the first hour of oral arguments Monday, Sotomayor asked 36 questions, tops among her colleagues; Justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also did a fair amount of talking, while the other judges remained relatively quiet.

There are a range of styles on the court: Among the less talkative Justices are Clarence Thomas, who has reportedly not asked a question in three years, and John Paul Stevens, who is prone to make sure one of his colleagues isn't planning to speak before he offers a polite "may I ask you."

Somewhere in the middle is Justice Stephen Breyer, who, USA Today reports, often tries to interject but "is often beaten" by his colleagues. Writes the newspaper: "He is apt to lean back in his black leather chair in frustration."

Sotomayor has been talkative but polite on the court thus far, interjecting with questions like "Could I have a clarification of the facts?" At one point, fearing that she might have interrupted Breyer, she apologized "if I cut you off."
According to the Washington Post, the only sign that she was new to the court on her first day was "that she at times forgot to turn on her microphone before posing a question."

The court took up a case Monday involving whether a prisoner in Maryland who, questioned about child abuse, asked for a lawyer, at which point police stopped questioning him. More than two years later, as part of an unrelated investigation, the man was again asked about the child abuse allegations, at which point he waved his Miranda rights and made incriminating statements.

The question before the court is whether those statements are admissible, since the prisoner did not have the lawyer he initially requested present at the later questioning. Sotomayor seemed skeptical of the argument from the prisoner's lawyer; at one point, in reference to the notion that the request for a lawyer went in perpetuity, she said, skeptically, "So there is no termination point? Really?"

She also picked up on Justice Samuel Alito's question about whether someone who asked for a lawyer while being questioned about joyriding can be questioned by police as part of a murder investigation ten years later, the Associated Press reports.

After a lawyer said a request for a lawyer should stand for 40 years in some cases, Sotomayor asked, "You are saying for 20, 40 years, he's now immunized from being reapproached by police?"