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Opinion L.A.

Opinion: Justice (your picture here)

By Michael McGough
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What’s in a robe? Apparently it’s a precondition of having your face appear in a gallery of Supreme Court justices. Check the Supreme Court’s website under ‘Biographies of Current Justices of the Supreme Court’ and you’ll find head shots of all of the justices except one -- Elena Kagan.

Not that she’s completely absent. Like other justices, Kagan has a writeup on the site, one that exceeds in length those of more senior colleagues, including her fellow overachiever, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But where the other bios are accompanied by pictures, Kagan gets an eerie empty box. (Her swearing-in is pictured elsewhere on the site.)

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Why no pic? Apparently because Kagan hasn’t donned the robe yet. All of the other justices are shown in uniform. But couldn’t they have Photoshopped the picture?

-- Michael McGough

Opinion L.A.
Michael McGough

Michael McGough is the Los Angeles Times’ former senior editorial writer, based in Washington, D.C. He wrote editorials for The Times from 2006 to 2021. Before that, McGough worked for 30 years for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a reporter, editorial writer, editorial page editor and Washington correspondent. He wrote about law, national security, politics, foreign policy and religion. McGough is a graduate of Allegheny College and also attended the University of Kent at Canterbury in England and Yale Law School, where he received a master of studies in law degree.

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