U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. of South Carolina found Wilson's behavior so outrageous that he held her in contempt of court, ordering her to return $2,500 of her juror's pay and perform 120 hours of community service. Anderson said he would have put Wilson in jail for six months if she did not have four children at home.

But when the defendant in the case, Brandon Basham, asked for his death sentence to be thrown out as a result of Wilson's conduct, Anderson refused and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., backed him up.

And when Basham took his plea to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan agreed that the judge had made the correct call. The high court, to which Kagan has since been nominated, could say as early as Tuesday whether it will hear Basham's case.

It is no surprise that the government is seeking to preserve what it already has won, especially after the time and expense of a capital punishment trial.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan got a boost from potential GOP supporters Thursday, when two Republican senators who will vote on her confirmation both said her lack of experience as a judge is no obstacle to elevating her.

Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and George S. LeMieux of Florida made their comments a day after one of the court's conservative icons, Justice Antonin Scalia, undercut Republican criticism of Kagan's lack of a judicial background.

Scalia's remark, made during a lecture Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Washington, "helps her. Definitely, it helps her," said Graham, a member of the Judiciary Committee that will hold confirmation hearings on Kagan set to begin June 28. "I think that argument is not going to go very far."

LeMieux, who had a lengthy meeting with Kagan in the Capitol Thursday, also said judicial inexperience was not a concern.

"I don't find that in any way a prohibition to her service," LeMieux said. The first-term Floridian called Kagan intelligent, articulate and "refreshingly forthcoming" on a variety of questions he posed, on subjects including free speech, guns, gay and lesbian rights and abortion.

The Massachusetts attorney general asked a judge Wednesday to strike down a federal gay marriage ban, arguing it interferes with the right of states to define marriage and have those marriages acknowledged by the federal government.

The challenge to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act by Attorney General Martha Coakley's office was heard in federal court in Boston.

Assistant Attorney General Maura Healey argued states have historically had the right to define marriage.

She said the 1996 law could result in the denial of Medicaid and other benefits to married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

A lawyer from the U.S. Justice Department, Christopher Hall, argued the federal government has the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits — including requiring that those benefits only go to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.

Hall also pointed to instances where the federal government has regulated the definition of marriage in certain immigration cases.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says the GOP should set aside its "overheated rhetoric" questioning the qualifications and integrity of President Barack Obama's nominee. He's also urging Republicans to stop complaining about the timeline he set for Kagan's confirmation hearings, which are to begin June 28.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Judiciary Republican, has suggested the date is too soon, and warned Monday he might ask for a delay.

Leahy called the gripes "crocodile tears." The timetable mirrors the one used for Republican and Democratic nominees.

Kagan was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday for private meetings with senators.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan criticized a campaign finance ruling in a case she argued for the Obama administration and considers abortion rights to be settled law, according to a GOP senator who met with her Thursday.

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, asked whether Republicans could support Kagan, said the nominee "certainly has the qualifications, and certainly has, I think, the balance in her approach — at least so far — but I'd like to wait and see."

In their private meeting, Kagan stressed the importance of judicial restraint and deference to Congress by the high court, and discussed abortion rights, Snowe said. The senator was one of seven Republicans who joined Democrats last year in voting to confirm Kagan as solicitor general, the top government lawyer who argues the administration's cases before the Supreme Court.

Abortion rights supporters are concerned about a memo Kagan wrote as a White House aide in 1997 urging President Bill Clinton to back a ban on late-term abortions.

Senators also are awaiting another 160,000 pages of documents from Kagan's tenure on the Clinton White House staff that are being organized for release at the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock, Ark. Republicans have complained that they aren't likely to come in time for thorough scrutiny before confirmation hearings begin June 28.

President Barack Obama's liberal pick for a San Francisco-based appeals court, Goodwin Liu (Loo), has survived his first Senate test but still faces strong Republican opposition.

The Judiciary Committee voted 12-7 on Thursday to recommend confirmation of the law professor and associate dean of the University of California law school at Berkeley.

Republicans have assailed Liu's liberal writings. The nominee, at an earlier hearing, testified that his personal views would never have a role if he's confirmed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.