And I knew that I had things to learn, because I had never been a judge before. But there are
lots of different ways of preparing for this job. Justice Elena Kagan is the youngest Justice on
the court, and two of her secrets for success are relationship building and reaching across
the aisle. She was the first female Dean of the Harvard Law School and the first woman selected
as Solicitor General, representing the Obama administration before the same bench she would
soon join. Was it intimidating to start judging here at the Supreme Court, here at the top? There
always has to be a first time. And when I started as S.J. my first argument I was a little bit
nervous about it. I started not only at the top in terms of the court - starting at the Supreme
Court - I never argued before any appellate court before, but I also started on in a particularly
important case where there was a lot of press attention, a lot of public attention, generally,
and that was the Citizens United case. So, it was a bit nerve-wracking. The Citizens United
case removed restrictions on corporate spending in elections on the grounds of free speech under
the protection of the First Amendment. Kagan's argument lost but she gained confidence as she
began to speak. The butterflies were definitely going. But, but when I stood up to speak, you
know, words started coming out of my mouth, and Justice Scalia actually did me a favor. He asked
me a question straight away within the first 15 seconds. And once the questions started rolling,
you know, you have to answer them. And, you know, pretty soon in I thought okay this is going okay.
Justice Scalia has since become justice Kagan's hunting buddy as Justice Kagan asked him to help
her fulfill a confirmation pledge to try the sport in an effort to appease conservatives about her
thoughts on the Second Amendment. What is it like to go hunting for large game with Justice
Antonin Scalia, and why do you do it? Well, it's fun. Mostly we bird shoot, actually. Although,
we once went to Wyoming for three days and we, we went with a deer and an antelope license,
and we, we shot a couple of deer. Kagan and Scalia don't see eye to eye on many court issues, but as
fellow hunters? There's nobody I'd rather do that with. He's interesting, he's funny, he's charming,
he's, he has a great heart and a great spirit I think. Do you think that helps build consensus? I
think to the extent that people are like that. You know, it's not going to be in every case
once again and Justice Scalia has been known to disagree sharply and strenuously with people as
have I. But to the extent that you really like your colleagues around the table, I think that
that can help in lots of different ways in lots of different cases. At Harvard University Law School,
where Kagan still teaches every September before the court term begins, Kagan is credited with
bringing factions together and she applauds Chief Justice John Roberts' efforts to build unity on
the court. There have been times when you look back in Supreme Court history where there were
real dislikes, I mean almost pathological hatreds. We so don't come anywhere close to that. I think
we all genuinely admire each other and genuinely like each other. Maybe it's what surprised me
most when I, when I got on the court. Kagan first worked on the court more than two decades ago as
a clerk to then Justice Thurgood Marshall. And he was a great judge, but he was also a great lawyer.
I mean he, I think, was the greatest lawyer of the 20th century. What I was always struck by
when I talked with him was how he could take any case, and within a pretty short period of time, he
could just see to the heart of the case. I tried to do it myself when I started practicing law,
and I still think about it as a judge. It's like, "well, what's, what's the, the really central
issue in this case? What's the issue where, once you see the answer to that everything else falls
into place?" Most of Kagan's legal career has been as an educator. She's the daughter of a teacher,
and early on learned the way to the top. Well, my mother taught me to work hard in my life. Yeah,
no, I'm a hard worker, I've worked hard throughout my life. I worked hard when I was a student, I
worked hard when I was a young lawyer, I work hard now. It's a lifestyle she built on at Princeton,
Oxford, and Harvard Universities. And then as a teacher at the University of Chicago Law School
and as Dean of the Harvard Law School. She met President Obama at the University of Chicago,
a fellow teacher who would later make her part of his administration and subsequently nominate
her to the bench. I think it's a good thing in general to see if you can forge consensus
in every case without giving up on strong commitments and convictions about, about
how a case should come out. And I would like to think that, that I'm helpful in that in that task.