The Supreme Court Goes Online

As reported by CNN a few days ago, the United States Supreme Court “finally dropped its deeply entrenched tradition of self-important ceremony and has decided, starting this week, to hear oral arguments by remote feed, accessible to the public in real time.”  

Of course, arguing to the Justices over the phone, as the case is for now, is not the same as being before them in person with a “live audience.”  But the situation worked just fine: “The technology worked. Questioning by the justices was orderly and efficient, and the attorneys gave focused, responsive answers. There was minimal confusion or cross-talk.”

Would it, in fact, not be better if the Court went even further and allowed broadcasting or livestreaming via TV or online all the time?  After all, few people have the time and resources to travel to Washington much less the ability to get one of the highly coveted seats at the live hearings.

I vote for livestreaming not only the Supreme Court hearings, but other court hearings as well.  Doing so is already frequently done for city county hearings, etc.  Government transparency is important.  Surely, the Justices would not be more nervous if they were heard live by even more people.  Surely, the attorneys have performance anxiety to begin with which would probably not be much worse just by new technology making access border.