Kagan in 2009: Cameras in SCOTUS would show 'government working at a really high level'

Solicitor General Elena Kagan in 2009 all but endorsed the idea of televising the Supreme Court's oral arguments, putting her at odds with some of the bench's sitting justices.

While Justice Steven Breyer and others have long shot down that possibility, Kagan said at the Ninth Circuit Judiciary Conference last July that cameras in the courtroom would give the public access to proceedings that are "amazing and extraordinary." "I have a feeling that they're going to make this decision themselves, and they're the best to make this decision themselves," Kagan said during the question-and-answer session, 10 months before President Barack Obama would nominate her to fill the vacancy left by Justice Anthony Stevens' retirement. "This court, I think, is so smart, and so prepared, and so engaged, and everybody who gets up there at the podium -- they face the toughest questions, the most challenging questions are thrown at them," she continued. "And there is a debate of really extraordinary intellectual depth and richness."