He may not quite be the Funniest Justice, but the argument can be made that Justice Stephen G. Breyer is the most accident-prone member o f the U.S. Supreme Court.

Breyer broke his shoulder Friday in a fall off of his bicycle near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington – his second serious biking accident in the last two years and his third overall.  He’s recovering from reverse shoulder replacement surgery at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and is expected to be released early this week, according to the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office.

In 2011, Breyer broke his collarbone while bicycling near his home in Cambridge, Mass. Back in 1993, Breyer interviewed with then-President Bill Clinton for a Supreme Court post while still recovering from broken ribs and a punctured lung suffered when he was hit by a car while bicycling in the Bay State. Clinton nominated Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead, but Breyer got the nod from Clinton a year later.

Breyer has also suffered other unrelated misfortunes recently, including being robbed at machete-point in the Caribbean and having his Georgetown home burglarized in 2012.

Breyer is not the only justice to suffer accidental injuries. Justice Sonia M. Sotomayor suffered a broken ankle after taking a spill at an airport during her Senate confirmation process in 2009. And in 2011, DC Dicta spotted Sotomayor limping into the courtroom during oral arguments, propping her leg on a footrest behind the bench and occasionally wincing in pain. The court’s press office later confirmed to DC Dicta that the justice “was experiencing some knee/ligament discomfort,” although no cause was provided.

More recently, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fell at her home and suffered broken ribs last year. In 2009 Ginsburg suffered a bad reaction to medication and fell off her chair while aboard an airplane – a month after fainting in her chambers.

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.

DC Dicta is taking a week-long hiatus. We’ll be back April 8.