Supremes shy away from TV for health care case

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U.S. Supreme CourtThe health care package passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama is headed for the Supreme Court 3/26-28. The justices believe they are being extraordinarily accommodating by allowing same-day release of audio tapes of the proceedings. But TV cameras will still be shut out.


C-SPAN had been trying to get its cameras into the courtroom for the event, and had backing of members of Congress, notably including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

But it is not to be. According to The Hill, the justices fear that the presence of cameras will possibly lead lawyers to abandon the convoluted jargon of their profession and instead play to the cameras when arguing a case.

Making the audio available on the day of the case does speed things up – the tapes normally aren’t made available until the end of the week.

RBR-TVBR observation: We fail to see why an event that is open to the public, but held in a facility too small to accommodate more than a tiny percentage of US citizens, cannot be shown to all interested parties using common tools of the journalistic trade.

As far as playing to the cameras is concerned, can’t the opposing attorneys police one another? “I object Your Honor – my grandstanding opponent has made a cogent and perfectly understandable argument so therefore, henceforth and forthwith I move that it be stricken from the record.” There – see how easy that was?

Since the justices will not allow us to see how they determine the fate of health care in modern times using modern technology, we sentence them to have access only to health care available during a more primitive time in the history of humanity and jurisprudence. We hope they like leeches.