Did Tom Goldstein just make a comment about grandstanding at the Supreme Court?

December 6th, 2011

Seriously. His arguments in Sorrell v. IMS Health defined grandstanding. It would also be nice for SCOTUSBlog to indicate somewhere in its liveblog that Tom–the person testifying–runs the site, though that might be so painfully obvious to anyone that cares that a disclosure would be unnecessary.

This Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Cameras in the Supreme Court seems somewhat silly. People like Tom Goldstein and Maureen Mahoney have a vested interest in sucking up to the judges. Of course they won’t demand that the Court televises proceedings. Also, I hope C-SPAN replays the hearings, as the Nine were hearing arguments across the street during the testimony.

All of the panelists seem to have come down on the point that cameras would be good, but SCOTUS should do it themselves, not legislatively.