Washinton D.C. , Oct 8 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Sonia Sotomayor, who was confirmed as the replacement for retired Justice David Souter during the summer, started her new term on Monday.

The aggressive Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked more questions, in an hour than Justice Clarence Thomas has asked over the course of several years. Sotomayor’s aggressive role in a Fifth Amendment case, in turn, underscored how she could put her own stamp on a court whose 2009-2010 docket is still taking shape.

“The Supreme Court is already off to a notable start, and there is so much more to come,” Caroline Fredrickson, the executive director of the American Constitution Society, a liberal lawyers organization, said even before inaugural oral argument Monday.

In last month’s hearing, as well as in the first case on Monday, involving so-called Miranda rights to stay silent unless represented by an attorney, Sotomayor proved herself a dogged and determined questioner. She spoke nearly three dozen times Monday during the argument in the case called Maryland v. Shatzer.

“Could I have a clarification of the facts for a moment?” Sotomayor asked at one point, and then pursued the attorney with four specific follow-up questions.

However, there was one downside in her entire session, when she repeatedly forgot to turn on her microphone. Whenever she was asked something or she herself wanted to ask questions, then she would answer and later realize that the microphone was not on in the first place. She would need to turn it on and then repeat her entire answer.