Cameras at the Supreme Court:
Justice Souter famously said, "over my dead body." But when he is no longer a Justice, will the idea get new life?
Cameras at the Supreme Court:
Justice Souter famously said, "over my dead body." But when he is no longer a Justice, will the idea get new life?
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It would be great to have cameras there.
Or Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert
Prediction? 2025?
Given that the only work product of SCOTUS is already published I don't think video would add as much as it would for the lower courts.
They work for us so they only have limited privacy in their official duties. And thanks to this timely example, apparently in their private lives too.
Why is it people in power always get upset when the same standards they apply to the little people are used on them?
The next time a student in the back of the lecture hall decides to put his head down for a little nappy-poo, he ought to be expelled.
See, this is why the safe move is to just skip class in the first place!
Why don't the justices just keep recordings (even from themselves) until the decision is released? Then the story would be the decision, and only academics (mostly) would be interested in the oral arguments.
At argument time, the lawyers audience is the justices and it would be silly to grandstand, and the justices don't yet know how the vote will go, so granstanding could backfire for them too.
Not that video would help me personally on that front since I'm blind, but I could see it being useful to others.
It's really not clear that it is within Congressional power, and a Supreme Court which were sufficiently against it could come up with a rationale by which it isn't.
Which is to say: Congress would be provoking a Constitutional crisis if it passed such an act, and is therefore not likely to do so, unless it believes the Supreme Court will acquiesce.
They brought in the Florida gumshoe, as his county was part of the question. Poor sap, started off with some "Four score and 20-years ago..." nonsense, and the judges cut him right off, couldn't get satisfaction from him, and proceeded to discuss amongst clearly the only people they could get satisfaction from... themselves.
After his allotted few minutes were all used up, Rehnquist returned to him (I'm picturing here a sideways, squinty-eyed, inquisitional staredown.) "Mr. Gumshoe, your time has ended, and you really haven't had a chance to say very much, so I'll grant you a couple extra minutes if you need it." The guy recognized the moment, and declined. Poor sap, it was his big chance, the World Series, and he took 3 called strikes.
Then, Tribe got up to pontificate... same treatment... they tore right in on him. He got confused on the judges' names a couple times, enough so you noticed it. A few minutes later, Scalia deigns to join the questioning, and precedes his questioning with the helpful note: "Uh, Mr. Tribe... I'm Scalia." The whole room busted up laughing.
Cameras might be OK, maybe tape-delayed like somebody else mentioned.
Incidentally, if I could ask only two questions of Scalia, something relating to this would absolutely be one of them; I'd love regularly-released same-day audio. (The other would be how a textualist and originalist could possibly believe that exercise of an unenumerated power that is the clear, omitted counterpart to an enumerated power could be Proper under the Necessary and Proper clause, as he held in Gonzales v. Raich. The same goes to a somewhat lesser extent for Necessary, for that matter -- a regulation becoming more difficult to enforce due to a state law is not the same as a regulation becoming impossible to enforce due to a state law.)
You've misremembered, as Roger Clemens said. The incident you attribute to Tribe actually happened in the real Bush v. Gore, the final iteration of the case, not Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board (or whatever it was titled). Tribe didn't argue that one for Gore, David Boies did. Ted Olson argued for Bush. Joseph Klock was the Florida lawyer (I believe representing Kathrine Harris), and he was the one who made all the mistakes. He called Stevens Justice Brennan, who'd been dead for years, then called Souter Justice Breyer. Souter told him to "cut that out." Then, when Scalia asked him a question he said, "Mr. Klock, I'm Scalia." It was hilarious.
It's also 1:30 minute argument, not a short one.
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