I seems that a Supreme Court justice is always on duty, even when she is just trying to have a simple cup of coffee with a friend on her day off.

Such was the case when Justice Sonia Sotomayor visited Sesame Street recently and found herself presiding over the case of Bear v. Goldilocks. Good thing Sotomayor always has her judicial robe handy.

Sotomayor rendered a speedy resolution of the case – even if she totally disregarded the fact that the crime of breaking and entering had occured – and all parties were satisfied.

The 9th Circuit ruled today that California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, setting the stage for the case to land before the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation of ‘marriage,’ which symbolizes state legitimization and social recognition of their committed relationships,” wrote 9^th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the 2-1 decision finding that the law violated the 14^th Amendment. “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for ‘laws of this sort.’” (More here from Lawyers USA).

The court stopped short of ruling on the broader issue of the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry generally, instead striking down the California ban known as Proposition 8 based on its specific application.

Now, proponents of Proposition 8 can either seek en banc review from the full panel of the 9^th Circuit or petition the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari – the more likely course of action considering parties on both sides were prepared from the start for the challenge to go all the way to Washington.

There are problems with the nation’s federal court system. And according to Justice Antonin Scalia, one of those problems is a flood of petty criminal cases – better suited for state courts – that have turned the U.S. Supreme Court into a “court of criminal appeals.”

Federal courts are clogged with “nickel and dime criminal cases,” Scalia told attendees of an American Bar Association meeting in New Orleans on Saturday, according to the Associated Press. He called the situation “probably regrettable” and added that it doesn’t reflect “what the federal courts were set up for.”

When retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cracks political jokes, people laugh.

That was the case last weekend at an exclusive black-tie gathering of Washington’s elite when O’Connor drew the biggest laugh of the night, according to attendees.

At the Alfalfa Club dinner, which drew President Barack Obama, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. and Justice Anthony Kennedy among others, O’Connor quipped about GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, noting: “one is a practicing polygamist, and he’s not even the Mormon,” the Huffington Post reports.

As most of you can probably recall (we sure can), law school was a competitive place – and getting a not-so-perfect grade could make you feel as if you were putting your career in jeopardy.

But current law students can take heart! Even if you don’t ace every course, you too can end up on the U.S. Supreme Court.

According to Harvard Law School’s The Record, back when Elena Kagan was a law school student she earned [dramatic drum roll here….] B’s in several classes!

The Record piece goes on to list several other noted legal scholars and judges who earned a less-than-stellar grade or two during their time in law school.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor isn’t the only one traveling during the U.S. Supreme Court’s winter break. Her colleague, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is on a “listening tour” of Egypt and Tunisia.

Though few details of the justice’s trip have been released – presumably due to security concerns, according to FindLaw – the justice is traveling with her daughter, Columbia law professor Jane Ginsburg. According to the State Department, Ginsburg plans to meet with Egypt’s  top judges and “listen and learn” about the country’s transition to democracy in the wake of the uprisings last year.

Ginsburg’s presence in Egypt and Tunisia is a show of support for officials there, Findlaw reports, and the justice is ready to offer her insights if requested. “Justice Ginsburg would be pleased to answer questions about the U.S. legal system and Constitution,” a State Department press release states.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s winter recess has given Justice Sonia Sotomayor the opportunity to tour some of the country’s island territories.

Fresh from a trip to Guam, which caused her to miss the president’s State of the Union address last week, Sotomayor landed in Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands over the weekend. Sotomayor is attending legal conferences sponsored by the Guam Bar Association and the Northern Mariana Islands Bar Association.

According to the Saipan Tribune, Sotomayor, whose family hails from Puerto Rico, said she felt a connection to the island communities.

“There’s still peace here,” she said yesterday at a press briefing  at the courthouse of the U.S. District Court for the NMI . “It is wonderful to see islands unlike the ones I am accustomed to, even my own island, Puerto Rico, that are very, very developed and don’t maintain completely their island identity, but that’s not true here.”

During her trip, Sotomayor met with bar association and judicial officials and helped judge a mock trial competition.

We hope Chief Justice John Roberts presides over a piece of birthday cake today. The nation’s head jurist turns 57.

We already knew the pending Supreme Court showdown between Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and the Obama administration over the controversial Arizona immigration law SB 1070 would be explosive. But yesterday we got a glimpse of the bubbling animosity between the parties.

As the Court prepares to hear the debate over whether the state statute directing police to check the immigration status of detainees believed to be in the country illegally is preempted by federal immigration law, Brewer and President Obama had a heated exchange yesterday.

After Brewer greeted Obama as he stepped off Air Force One outside of Phoenix, she handed him a letter and then the two engaged in a heated discussion. According to the Associated Press, both Brewer and Obama appeared to be smiling, but speaking over each other for several moments. At one point, Brewer waved her finger in the president’s face.

Asked about the exchange afterward, Brewer said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.”

In her recent book “Scorpions for Breakfast,” Brewer described a meeting she had with Obama at the White House to discuss immigration. “I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least,” Brewer said.

According to Brewer, Obama objected to the book’s implication that she was mistreated at the White House

“I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is,” Brewer said. “I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we’re glad he’s here, and we’ll regroup.”

Brewer said the letter she handed Obama was an invitation to have lunch and visit the border.

Here’s hoping oral arguments at the Supreme Court in April are as exciting.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to allot oral argument time to a group challenging Justice Elena Kagan’s participation in the health care challenge.

In an amicus filing supporting neither party in the case, the group Freedom Watch claimed that Kagan’s work in the Obama Administration shows that she “has demonstrated an extra-judicial bias and prejudice and must respectfully recuse herself or be disqualified,” according to SCOTUSblog.

Kagan did not participate in consideration of the oral argument motion – a routine approach for justices when a matter involves them directly. But considering that Kagan has participated in other orders related to the health care challenge, it is expected that she will hear the case.

For all the latest news from the Supreme Court, always check out the Supreme Court Report on Lawyers USA online. (The link is always on DC Dicta’s right hand column.)