Comments on: Liveblogging the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention

By: Myrtle Beach Attorney

Myrtle Beach Attorney — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:20:40 +0000

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By: Professor Chaos

Professor Chaos — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:01:39 +0000

The question isn’t why a Federalist Society member is clerking for a federal court; that’s perfectly unremarkable. The question is how a federal clerk has sufficient free time to liveblog the convention; I thought those guys were busy, you know, keeping the federal courts running.

By: Davidwhitewolf

Davidwhitewolf — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:54:31 +0000

Indeed, and it was quite feisty (as far as legal panels go). Getting ready for work (I’m on the West Coast) while listening live to a high-minded legal debate on property redistribution with Richard Epstein at one end of the table and the SEIU president (spit, spit) at the other end was pretty cool. I’ll have to check out the liveblogging at the office. Er, I mean, on my lunch break.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:48:17 +0000

C-SPAN is broadcasting some of the Federalist convention live this morning.

By: troll_dc2

troll_dc2 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:44:08 +0000

commenters who know more about it than I do are welcome to debate the question of whether livebloggers should be considered members of the media, and if so whether they have the same legal rights as MSM reporters do.

Josh is going to be sending information on public issues to the public at large; in fact, he has been given a special status to be able to do that. In his case, I cannot conjure up a plausible reason as to why he would not be considered a member of the media for all legal purposes. The First Amendment is not limited to specific media; rather, it protects a process and an outlet.

Perhaps bloggers who focus more on their own views than on telling the world what is going on should not be considered media members for all legal purposes (but they too would have First Amendment rights of some sort).

By: Josh Blackman

Josh Blackman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:31:49 +0000

Ilya, thanks for the link. If you would like to receive instant updates, please follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshbtweets or subscribe to the RSS Feed.

By: Brian G.

Brian G. — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:25:19 +0000

I agree that livebloggers should be considered members of the media. I would argue that for many events, they provide a better service. For example, I followed the World Series of Poker final table this weekend through Twitter and two live blogs. The information was much better and more interesting than the edited and condensed news stories the next day.

In this case however, the real question is why is a Federalist Sociery member is clerking for the Federal Court?