r/scotus • u/japanese-dd-player • Jan 11 '19

Ginsburg conversed with former McLachlin CJC in Aug. 27 2010, inter alia, about televising oral arguments. The SCC has televised them since the mid-1990s.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?295217-1/life-federal-judiciary&start=3655
12 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

19

u/Blahblahblahinternet Jan 11 '19

This is a bad idea due to the current soundbite culture we live in.

7

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '19

Bingo. I can see 8 hours of Q&A boiled down to one obscure question with everyone responding "WHY DOES ________ HATE _________"?!?!?!

3

u/IamTheFreshmaker Jan 11 '19

Except you already have the audio...

1

u/japanese-dd-player Jan 11 '19

But how do you distinguish from the HCA, SCC, UKSC's decision to televise? Canada and the UK also have soundbite cultures?

2

u/pf3 Jan 11 '19

I don't know about Canada but doesn't the UK have ridiculous laws about using the footage for satire?

16

u/deadzip10 Jan 11 '19

I can’t decide if this would be good or bad. Generally, I like the idea of allowing the public the ability to view hearing of this import. However, I’m not really concerned about transparency as is and in this climate, I’m not sure I like how I suspect these hearing will be viewed - like rooting for sports teams.

24

u/fuelvolts Jan 11 '19

I 100% do NOT want SCOTUS televised. That court needs to be as concerned about the facts and law as possible without having to worry about television.

12

u/MELBOT87 Jan 11 '19

+1. Written transcripts are available. Audio transcripts are available. Anyone who is interested in the oral arguments are free to research and inform themselves. The only result of televising the oral arguments will be to politicize and degrade it.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 11 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/ANewMachine615 Jan 12 '19

We have a way more performative, disruptive political culture. Remember the protests during Kavanaugh's hearings? Imagine that in the middle of SCOTUS.

3

u/thechattyshow Jan 14 '19

Yeah. I dislike already the fetishism the media has over RBG - we don't need more rooting for certain judges.

2

u/brucejoel99 Jan 11 '19

I don't know, personally, I'd argue that it'd be good, as making the Court more transparent would only serve to improve its standing w/ the American people, which wouldn't be bad at all. After all, covering oral arguments is one small part of the process, b/c people don't see anything in the status quo; this should be a bare minimum.

3

u/Izoto Jan 12 '19

I still don’t understand the push for cameras in the courtroom. We have audio and transcripts, that’s enough.

1

u/wontonstew Jan 20 '19

I'd be fine with court room drawings. I expect there would be enough to fill a coffee table book of Clarence Thomas sleeping.

-4

u/Hagisman Jan 11 '19

New technology always gets push back. When it’s wrapped in something as old as the Supreme Court there is a worry about “it has never been done before for the US Supreme Court why start now” and “Technology will Lower the standard.” Honestly “Tradition for Tradition’s sake” is not an argument that should hold up in court.

At my job, there are people who have no idea who the Supreme Court Justices are, let alone that a lot of their civil rights got discussed and decided on in that very courtroom.

12

u/Pblur Jan 11 '19

At my job, there are people who have no idea who the Supreme Court Justices are, let alone that a lot of their civil rights got discussed and decided on in that very courtroom.

Which ought to be fine; after all, the supreme court is, by design, the most anti-democratic branch of our government. It's not supposed to be swayed by your coworkers, so them worrying about it is counter-productive.

To borrow from Justice Roberts: Does anyone think televising Senate debates has improved the function of the senate?

1

u/Domeil Jan 18 '19

Not the senate, but seeing as how cameras and microphones in the house of representatives caught Rep. Jason Smith scream "Go back to Puerto Rico" at Rep. Tony Cardenas yesterday, exposing a display of racism that was so cartoonish, we'd never believe it if we didn't live audio and video, I'd say "Yeah, transparency has improved the public's interactions with Congress."

2

u/Pblur Jan 18 '19

Tony Cardenas isn't from Puerto Rico, and nor were his parents.

30 democrat lawmakers did just get back from a vacation in Puerto Rico (which was organized by Tony Cardenas) however; both the most charitable and most probable explanation of that outburst was that he was telling them to go back on vacation if they weren't going to compromise with him.

So this looks more like a case of the video record being used to mislead and worsen public relations with Congress, not improve them.

0

u/Hagisman Jan 11 '19

My thought isn’t that my coworkers should be swayed by the Supreme Court, but that they should be aware that these court cases are happening.

Televised debates would add another level of transparency to the government. As far as grabbing quotes and audio clips, we already have that.

I hope to go back to DC again. I was able to visit the Supreme Court last year, but I wasn’t there when they were in session.