I was listening to NPR this morning, enjoying Nina Totenberg’s preview of today’s argument in Miller-El v. Dretke, when I was rather startled to hear the voice of Justice Kennedy explaining his own 2003 opinion from an earlier round of the case, Miller-El v. Cockrell. Supreme Court Justices don’t go on NPR to explain their prior decisions, so I wondered where Totenberg could have found the audio of AMK explaining his opinion. A minute or so later, a google search confirmed my suspicion: the very cool Oyez.org site that has the audio of Supreme Court oral arguments available on-line also has the Justices’ bench statements. You can listen to Justice Kennedy’s complete summary of Miller-El v. Cockrell here.
Bench statements are brief summaries of opinions read by the Justices from the bench the morning that an opinion is released. They tend to be informal, at least compared to written opinions. Bench statements are read in open court to an audience that has no idea what cases (if any) will be released that morning, so they are addressed to generalists. More importantly, bench statements tend to focus on the core of the opinion’s argument, making them an interesting resource for students and historians alike who may want to get a better idea of what an opinion means. Plus, it’s just kind of cool to hear Supreme Court Justices explain their opinions at the very moment that they are released.
Oyez doesn’t have every bench statement available, at least yet, but there are lots of interesting cases available so far. For example, I had heard a lot about the courtroom atmosphere when Justice Kennedy and Justice Scalia announced the majority and dissenting views in Lawrence v. Texas. You can listen to both here.
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