INSTANTLY RE-LEGITIMIZED?:

[T]he court's newest justice politely dominated the questioning at the outset of Monday's session.

"Why is it that your conception of this does not relate in any way to Congress's primary objective?" Jackson asked Damien Schiff, a lawyer defending landowners seeking a narrow interpretation of federal power. "Do you dispute that the primary objective as stated in the statute ... is that Congress cared about making sure that the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters was protected?"

Jackson remained an active questioner throughout the argument, scoring assists from several colleagues, including Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, who pressed Schiff to respond to her queries. [...]

Justice Neil Gorsuch smiled broadly as the session got underway and casually chatted with one of his new neighbors, Sotomayor. He also deferred to Jackson once, who replied with some praise, sort of.

"I just wanted to follow up on Justice Gorsuch's very fair points, which were my points," she said.

Kavanaugh also tried at least once to get Roberts' attention for a question from Jackson, who sits to Kavanaugh's left.

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