Happy birthday to Justice Elena Kagan.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s newest justice is also the youngest, turning 53 today.

During oral arguments Tuesday, Justice Antonin G. Scalia asked why “my choice of marrying whom I want” can’t be considered property.

“I think it’s more properly viewed as a liberty interest,” said Justice Department attorney Sarah E. Harrington. “It’s not a source of economic value in the sort of traditional sense.”

“A lot of people marry for money,” Scalia deadpanned, drawing laughs.

For a while there, it looked like there may be a contest between Justices Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer for the title of Funniest Justice of OT 2012. But in the end, Scalia broke away to easily win and remain undefeated since DC Dicta began keeping tally 6 years ago.

Here are the final standings of the term:

Justice Antonin G. Scalia: 50

Justice Stephen G. Breyer: 40

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: 16

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: 9

Justice Elena Kagan: 9

Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor: 7

Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.: 5

Justice Clarence Thomas: 1

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 1

During oral arguments Wednesday in a case considering whether Congress has the power to apply federal sex offender registry requirements retroactively, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. questioned whether the source of Congress’ power matters.

“I don’t see how it makes a difference which enumerated power you’re talking about,” Roberts said.

“I think it does turn on the nature of the power,” said attorney M. Carolyn Fuentes. “I mean, could you use the military power to say you, Mr. Bank Fraud Client, cannot contract with the Government any more? No.”

“I get to ask the questions; you don’t,” Roberts deadpanned, to laughter from the audience.

The chief justice was the top chuckle earner this week with four laugh. And surprisingly, the usually funny Scalia failed to earn a single laugh this week, according to the Supreme Court’s transcripts. But his big lead remains intact.

Here are the standings after 13 weeks:

Justice Antonin G. Scalia: 48

Justice Stephen G. Breyer: 39

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: 15

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: 9

Justice Elena Kagan: 8

Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor: 7

Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.: 4

Justice Clarence Thomas: 1

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 1

Emotions – and tensions – ran high at the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday in a case asking whether a federal tribal law allows a biological father to regain custody of a child who had been legally adopted by a couple under state law.

To say it was a hot bench is an understatement. The justices frequently talked over one another and repeatedly interrupted the lawyers at the podium in an attempt to get their questions answered.

Things got so intense that one of the most vocal justices, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, was asked to be quiet by one of her colleagues – twice.

At one point when Sotomayor was rapidly firing questions at attorney Lisa Blatt, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. stopped her. “Could I hear her answer please?” Robert said to Sotomayor before allowing Blatt some time to talk.

Later, when Sotomayor interrupted attorney Paul Clement with her queries, Justice Antonin Scalia stopped her mid-sentence.

“Please finish,” Scalia then said to Clement. “Let’s finish.”

At the U.S. Supreme Court today, the already-high level of security was beefed up and flags outside the building were at half-staff after yesterday’s terror attack at the Boston Marathon finish line.

Inside, nothing was mentioned about the incident, which is unsurprising – although in the past some violent incidents far from the court have been noted by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. After the 2011 Tucson shooting that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seriously wounded and 6 others dead including federal Judge John Roll, Roberts led a moment of silence in the courtroom.

Justice Clarence Thomas made headlines when he broke his self-imposed code of silence during oral arguments in January. But apparently, he was unaware of the buzz his rare remark created.

When a student asked Thomas, who was speaking Tuesday at Duquesne University, what he thought of the media’s attention to his broken silence, Thomas said it was the first he’d heard of it.

“Well, first of all, my philosophy about the news is never watching it,” Justice Thomas said, to applause and laughter according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Thomas said he missed the early years of his Supreme Court tenure, when justices were allowed to ask a series of questions before the next justice would chime in. Things are different now, he said.

“Today, it’s just, my goodness, everybody’s got a question,” Thomas said, the Pot-Gazette reports. “I just think there are too many questions. I think that we have capable advocates and we should let the capable advocates talk.”

We already knew that Justice Stephen G. Breyer is perfectly comfortable speaking French. Now, he has a new reason to keep his foreign language skills sharp.

Monday Breyer was inducted as a foreign member of France’s Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, The New York Times reports. The academy is one of five of the Institut de France, and its membership is limited to 50 individual from France and only 12 from outside the country.

Breyer joins the likes of only a few Americans, including Thomas Jefferson, to get the nod from the organization. “The event is a recognition by a great institution of France of the institution to which I belong, the Supreme Court,” Justice Breyer said after the ceremony on Monday, the Times reported. “Our institutions flow from the enlightenment, and we’ve always seen our institutions working together.”

While DC Dicta was away, a Supreme Court justice had a birthday.

Happy belated birthday to Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who turned 63 on April 1.

During oral arguments yesterday in U.S. v. Windsor – the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked the attorney for the law’s defenders whether denying federal marriage recognition to same-sex couples legally married under state law was  “diminishing what the state has said is marriage.”

“You’re saying no, the state said two kinds of marriage; the full marriage, and then this sort of . . .  skim milk marriage,” Ginsburg said, drawing – for the first time this term – laughs from the audience, according to the Supreme Court’s official transcripts.

And with that, for the first time since DC Dicta began tallying the justices’ laughs-worthy comments, every single justice is on the board (most years it was the usually-silent Justice Clarence Thomas who always had the goose egg).  This week, Justice Antonin G. Scalia was again the top laugh earner, adding five more to his sizable lead.

Here are the standings after 12 oral argument weeks:

Justice Antonin G. Scalia: 48

Justice Stephen G. Breyer: 38

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: 11

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: 9

Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor: 7

Justice Elena Kagan: 7

Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.: 3

Justice Clarence Thomas: 1

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 1

Yesterday, when considering the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, several justices indicated that it may be simply too soon.

“You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution [of same-sex marriage] which is newer than cell phones or the Internet?” asked Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. at one point yesterday. “I mean, we do not have the ability to see the future.”

Now court watchers will see if the justices express the same reluctance as they take up the law that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage – the Defense of Marriage Act. Follow DC Dicta on Twitter (@DCDicta) for updates from the courthouse, and check Lawyers USA online later for an analysis o f the arguments.