BUS YOUR OWN TRAY

mikehudack:

savingpaper:

Best thing she’s said all day.

No. Cameras in the Court would be a terrible thing. The Court needs to maintain an air of mystery and authority. It’s the only power it has, given that it doesn’t have an army or accountants.

Well, it can also issue declare laws invalid and tell every other court in the country what to do. That’s a decent power. :)

But if your point is that the Court can’t enforce rulings on its own and thus requires some way to convert the perception of authority in actual authority, sure, there’s something to that. Except the Court always enjoys a sort of nuclear option, which is if the President doesn’t respect its authority the whole country falls into a constitutional crisis. Which might not be good for the economy or said President’s political agenda.

No, the real reason that cameras don’t belong in the chambers of the Supreme Court is that they’re a distraction and will almost certainly affect the outcome of any given case. It takes a lot of work to be yourself on camera, and even when you’re good at it you’re never actually yourself, you’re some version of yourself that is based on your perception of the reactions of people who see recordings of you (yourself included). We like having the Court insulated from the political process, from the whims of majority rule; I don’t see why we wouldn’t also insulate them from the nitpicky armchair experts who somehow judge the abilities of Top Chef contestants without actually tasting their food. Not to mention cable news pundits.

An even greater risk might be the grandstanding attorneys who use their Supreme Court “moment” for something other than oral argument. They might get mixed up about who the judges are in that situation, the nine people off-screen or the hundreds of millions watching at home? 

Cameras let other motivations into the room. Those motivations split your focus, and a split focus is why smart people commit unforced errors. There’s no doubt in my mind that OJ Simpson would be in jail or on death row right now if Lance Ito hadn’t allowed cameras in that courtroom.