Here is just one case example of her position and style:
http://www.law.com/regionals/ca/stories/edt1207c.shtml
Excerpts...
"In San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco, S091757, the hotel's owners challenge the constitutionality of the city's Hotel Conversion Ordinance, which requires residential hotel owners to pay a fee if they want to change their property's historic use to cater to tourists. The purpose of the 1981 ordinance is to ensure the retention of affordable housing in San Francisco by using the fee charged hotel owners to replace the housing stock lost by conversion."
"San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Andrew Schwartz was stopped short Thursday during oral arguments before the California Supreme Court when Justice Janice Rogers Brown uttered the word 'ransom.'"
"Brown was talking about a hefty fee the city of San Francisco charges residential hotel owners wanting to convert their property for use by tourists, and she made it quite clear she was troubled by the concept.
"'You are taking the property owner's right to use his property as he wants and you are saying he is able to continue that use only if he pays you ransom,' Brown said. That, she continued, would be like her taking Schwartz's car and refusing to return it unless he met her demands."
"'In many jurisdictions,' Brown said sharply, 'that would be theft.'"
After the argument, San Francisco lawyers Andrew Zacks and Paul Utrecht took credit for Baxter's suggestion about a standard of review. They were also heartened by Justice Brown's strongly stated comments.
"'We believe Justice Brown understands these issues,' Zacks said. 'Her past opinions,' Utrecht added, 'have been very protective of the Fifth Amendment.'"
"Brown was steamed that the San Francisco ordinance -- 'a very convoluted statutory scheme to say the least' -- defined the 95-year-old, 62-room San Remo Hotel as a residential facility. The fact that the city defined it based on the number of rooms rented to tourists and residents during a 32-day survey period in 1979 didn't sit well with her, either."
"'What this was was a hotel,' she said. 'It remained a hotel, and it's still a hotel.'"