It takes an average of about 100 days from the time a U.S. Supreme Court justice announces his or her retirement until the Senate confirms a replacement, according to Senate Judiciary Committee.

President Barack Obama on Monday nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan as successor to the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens.

While no nomination is guaranteed to be approved by the Senate, Kagan is seen as having a good chance for confirmation. Here is a look at what she faces in the drive to be sworn in.

* In coming days, Kagan will likely have courtesy visits with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. She will also visit with the 12 Democrats and seven Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who will hold the confirmation hearing.

* The 400,000-member American Bar Association, the world's largest voluntary professional association, will conduct its own review of the nominee. The ABA will deem Kagan "well qualified," "qualified" or "unqualified." While the rating will not ensure confirmation or rejection, it is certain to be a factor in Senate consideration.

* The Judiciary Committee will submit a questionnaire to Kagan. Questions will range from age, place of birth and education to net worth, copies of the nominee's public writings and speeches, potential conflicts of interest and if anyone at the White House asked how she might rule. In 2005, the panel complained that President George W. Bush's nominee Harriet Miers had inadequately filled out her questionnaire. She withdrew from consideration.

BUSINESS OPINION: Ireland generates just 1% of European GDP, but is home to three of the 20 biggest law firms, writes JOHN McMANUS

HERE IS a provocative question. Are Arthur Cox and the other big Dublin law firms some sort of homegrown version of Goldman Sachs? Do their activities resonate with those of the Wall Street giant which was so famously described by Rolling Stone Magazine’s Matt Taibbi as a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money?”

Well, the big firms certainly seem to share Goldman Sachs’ ability to be on both sides of a deal and not be overly troubled by conflicts of interest. Arthur Cox, it has to be remembered, felt able to advise the Minister for Finance last spring on how to restructure the banks while at the same time being the lawyers of Bank of Ireland and simultaneously working for the private-equity consortium that was engaging with the Government on investing in Bank of Ireland.

What they did was not illegal and something quite different to the allegations being made against Goldman Sachs by the US regulators, but the management of conflicts of interest is central to the criticism being levelled against both organisations.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that journalists do not have a blanket right to shield confidential sources.

The court ruled 8-1 against the National Post and former reporter Andrew McIntosh, who sought to quash a search warrant issued almost a decade ago in a case dealing with a possibly forged document from a secret source linked to a political scandal.

In finding there is no broad protection for journalists to shield sources, the justices said claims of immunity can be argued on a case-by-case basis.

"The law should and does accept that in some situations the public interest in protecting the secret source from disclosure outweighs other competing public interests — including criminal investigations," Justice Ian Binnie wrote on the court's behalf.

"In those circumstances, the courts will recognize an immunity against disclosure of sources to whom confidentiality has been promised."

But Binnie wrote that in this situation, the needs of a police investigation trumped the right to keep sources confidential.

An attorney is charged with setting a fire at the Martinsburg law firm where she worked in September 2007 and then attempting to set another fire there in April 2008, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records.

Ashley R. Shreve, 28, of 2316 Longboat Court in Richmond, Va., was arrested Wednesday in Richmond by Henrico County (Va.) police, Berkeley County Sheriff’s Lt. B.F. Hall said Thursday.

Shreve is charged with one count each of second-degree arson, attempted arson and terrorist threats, according to warrants issued April 29 by Magistrate Sandra L. Miller, court records show.

Hall said Shreve waived extradition and is expected to be returned to Berkeley County to face the charges in the next few days.

The fire Sept. 20, 2007, at McNeer, Highland, McMunn & Varner L.C., at 275 Aikens Center, caused “thousands of dollars” in damage, possibly between $5,000 and $10,000, Hall said.

Shreve was a resident of Spring Mills in Berkeley County when she worked at the law firm, Hall said.

She no longer works there and moved to the Richmond area after the April 2008 attempted arson, according to police.

The fire was reported at 5:45 a.m. Shreve and another employee were the last two staff members to leave the office the evening before the fire, according to court records.

A box of legal documents in a legal assistant’s office were intentionally set on fire and a box of files that were found under Shreve’s desk also had fire damage, according to court records.

The Washington state Supreme Court has ruled that public libraries can use Internet filters to block content.

In a 6-3 ruling Thursday, the court says public libraries have discretion about which Internet content to allow, just as they decide which magazines and books to offer.

The majority says libraries don't need to completely remove Internet filters and can provide access to websites containing constitutionally protected speech if requested by an adult.

But a blistering dissent by Justice Tom Chambers argues that the ruling restricts constitutionally protected speech.

A law firm employing the trustee winding down Bernard Madoff's investment firm has won court approval to be paid $20.3 million of additional fees, pushing its total to $50.9 million for 13-1/2 months of work.

In an order made public on Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan authorized the additional payment to Baker & Hostetler LLP, plus reimbursement of $390,200 of expenses, covering the Oct. 1, 2009 to Jan. 31, 2010 period.

Baker & Hostetler has been awarded $59.8 million of fees overall, but is deferring 15 percent, or $9 million, until the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC is complete, court records show.

Irving Picard, the court-appointed trustee and a Baker & Hostetler partner, has been trying to recover assets for victims of Madoff and his estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme. He has separately been awarded $1.93 million in fees.

Lifland's order came over the objections of some Madoff victims. They believe Picard either undervalues some claims, allows claims to be paid too slowly, or has a conflict of interest because he also represents the interests of the Securities Investor Protection Corp against the victims.

A federal appeals court on Thursday intervened to block the release of nine members of a Michigan militia accused of plotting to overthrow the government, dealing a setback to the defendants as they gathered in a courtroom hoping to rejoin their families.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati issued a temporary stay about 12 hours after a federal judge in Detroit said she would no longer freeze her Monday decision releasing the nine with electronic monitors and other restrictions.

With some already in street clothes, the militia members were transported to court to be processed for release Thursday. But they were returned to jail after a magistrate judge announced the appeals court decision.