Tuesday, September 13, 2005

S(upreme) C(court) TV

Thanks to C-SPAN's online streaming video service, I was able to watch a good chunk of the Roberts confirmation hearing today while at work. That's a good thing because the coverage of this first new Chief Justice nominee in 19 years has been relegated to C-SPAN 3 on TV. Hell, my DirecTV package doesn't even have C-SPAN 3! And I thought shunting the US-Mexico World Cup qualifier a couple of weeks ago directly to ESPN Classic was a bad sign.

Speaking of the Supremes and TV, Sandy Grady has a column in USA Today today arguing that the Court should open its proceedings to TV cameras and that maybe Roberts will lead the way on that. I'm not sure that televised oral arguments would be watched by anyone beyond the small group of appellate law geeks of which I am a proud member. But no matter, I don't see the Court changing the rules on this anytime soon ('tho the Ninth Circuit has done it a couple of times, IIRC). Oh, and Sandy, we were spared the specifics of the Martha Stewart trial specifically because it took place in federal, rather than state, court.

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