Supreme Court gets hotter

I'm not talking about aesthetics, although the thought of John Paul Stevens in a Speedo just gave me the giggles (others of you probably had a different reaction to that mental image). No, I'm talking about the amount and degree of questioning from the bench -- you know, "hot bench" versus "cold bench"; lots of questioning versus little or none at all.

If First Monday was any indication, the addition of Sonia Sotomayor makes the high court a little livelier. As the ABA Journal points out, the newest Supreme didn't waste any time jumping into the fray. She even asked more questions than Antonin Scalia in the first hour.

I was reminded of myself when I got to this part of the story:

Sotomayor’s questions sounded as if they were formulated by a prosecutor or trial lawyer, according to the NLJ story. She made declarative statements about some aspect of the case, and then asked, “Correct?”

I've gotten better in that regard when judging practice rounds or competitions, but I still have an unfortunate Sam Donaldson-esque tendency to just bark out a declaration, often prompting the student to look at me with a "I'm sorry, was there a question in there?" face.