CONSERVATIVES MIGHT NOT LOSE A CASE THIS TERM:

Kagan's recusals take her out of action in many of the Supreme Court's cases (Robert Barnes, October 4, 2010, Washington Post)

Kagan's old job as solicitor general - the "10th justice" - is initially making it hard to do her new job as the ninth justice.

Kagan, 50, has recused herself from 25 of the 51 cases the court has accepted so far this term, all as a result of her 14-month tenure as solicitor general, the government's chief legal representative in the Supreme Court and the nation's lower appellate courts.