Before she joined the Court, however, commentators debated which way this would cut. Some predicted that her vast experience with the criminal justice system would mean she would have greater awareness of the potential for government abuses and overreaching, because she would have a rich understanding of police practices, an appreciation of the challenges criminal justice lawyers face given limited resources, and a deep knowledge of the range of cases in the system and the individual stories those cases represent.2 Others observed that she would be prone to favor the government because she herself represented the state as a prosecutor.