You might have heard the story about the oral argument before the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. After Sarah Weddington had concluded her winning argument, Jay Floyd, speaking for the State of Texas, attempted a rather tactless joke about having to follow two pretty females, and how he was guaranteed not to get the last word. I am not making this up — even Rehnquist grimaced.

If you haven’t actually heard the comment, you can now do that at Oyez.Org, one of my favorite sites. These guys have posted on their site downloadable recordings and podcasts of United States Supreme Court oral arguments going back decades. During the Roberts confirmation hearings I spent a good deal of time listening to his arguments. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during oral argument on the most critical social issues before the Court, now you can be.

One more thing. Justice Roberts mentioned during his confirmation hearings that he would be open to the idea of being the first Chief Justice to authorize in-court cameras. He said he would have to consult with the Court to get its input first, but he seemed more than just open to it, he seemed intrigued by the idea. When you consider how it’s mostly the older judges who object to bringing even PowerPoint into the courtroom, while the younger judges are putting it to good use in the spirit of judicial efficiency, you gotta think that Roberts (50) is going to be a good influence on the issue of the SCOTUS embracing the modern technological world.

RP

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.