WASHINGTON -- By mid-morning on the first day of the Supreme Court's term, it was clear new Justice Sonia Sotomayor will fit right in -- and in particular with her talkative fellow New Yorkers.

Justice Sotomayor peppered the lawyers with questions in a pair of cases, joining with her fellow New Yorkers, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, during the oral arguments. Together, they left the other justices sitting in silence for much of the time.

In the first hour alone, Justice Sotomayor asked 36 questions, and Justice Scalia followed with 30. Justice Ginsburg is particularly interested in legal procedures, and she and Justice Sotomayor dominated the questioning for much of the second hour.

In the past, some rookie justices listened for days before joining in the fast-paced arguments. Justice David Souter, the reserved New Hampshire native whom Justice Sotomayor replaced, said little during his first year. Justice Clarence Thomas has not asked a question for more than three years.

If anyone assumed Justice Sotomayor would play the role of shy rookie, she dispelled that idea within the first minutes of the opening argument.

She leaned forward and began questioning Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler about the Miranda rule, which requires police to warn a crime suspect that he has a right to remain silent and a right to a lawyer. If a suspect says he wants a lawyer before he answers questions, the police must stop the questioning. It also bars police from trying again a day or two later to persuade him to talk without a lawyer.

But how long does this prohibition on questioning last? A police investigator in Maryland decided to visit an inmate who was held on other charges and ask him about an unresolved child abuse case. It was two years and seven months after the prisoner, Michael Shatzer, had refused to talk unless he had a lawyer.

Facing a new investigator, Mr. Shatzer talked and made incriminating comments. After Mr. Shatzer was convicted of child abuse, a Maryland appeals court ruled his rights were violated when he was questioned without a lawyer present.

The Supreme Court took up Maryland's appeal, and the justices, Justice Sotomayor included, sounded as if they were searching for a new rule that would allow new questioning of crime suspects after a long lapse of time.

A lawyer for the convicted child abuser insisted he should not have been questioned once he had said he would not talk without a lawyer.

"So there is no termination point? Really?" asked Justice Sotomayor, sounding as skeptical as Justice Scalia.

The possibility of a Scalia-Sotomayor rivalry has been the topic of speculation since her appointment. Justice Scalia has been the court's most outspoken conservative for more than 20 years, and Justice Sotomayor had shown herself to be strong and assertive as a judge on the U.S. appeals court in Manhattan.

Outside the courtroom, she has managed to upstage Justice Scalia. A lifelong New York Yankees fan, she was invited to throw out the first ball in a recent game at Yankee Stadium. Justice Scalia, another lifelong Yankees fan, is awaiting his invitation.

The opening of the term is also the day for the court to say "no" to hundreds of disappointed litigants. The justices released a long list of more than 1,800 appeals that were turned down without comment.

In an abortion-related case, the court turned down a pro-adoption group called Choose Life Illinois that said it had a free-speech right to have "Choose Life" license plates. The state refused and said it did not want to get involved in the abortion controversy.

The court rejected an appeal from a Florida youth who said he had a right to sit silently during the Pledge of Allegiance at school. Florida law says students can be excused from this ritual only with the parents' permission.

The court turned away a free-speech appeal from high school students in Tennessee who said they had a right to wear T-shirts with a Confederate flag.

The court refused a request from the Catholic archdiocese in Bridgeport, Conn., seeking to block the release of files on priests accused of sexual abuse. A state court had ordered the release, and the church argued, unsuccessfully, that this would violate its rights under the First Amendment.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.