We’ll be watching some special programs on C-SPAN over the next week and we encourage you to as well.
“Supreme Court Week” on the network will feature interviews with 11 of the current and living retired United States Supreme Court Justices. It starts this Sunday, Oct. 4 at 9 p.m. Eastern with the documentary The Supreme Court: Home To America’s Highest Court, and continues each night through Oct. 11.
The timing of the programming coincides with the start of the Court’s new term and the beginning of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s tenure on the bench.
(C-SPAN)
As the co-author of a book published by West, we’ll be particularly interested in the segments featuring Justice Antonin Scalia (Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges). He’s featured in the documentary and in an interview that will air on Oct. 9.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog posted some excerpts of Scalia’s interview with C-SPAN, in which he talks about the “quality of counsel” who appear before the court:
Well, you know, two chiefs ago, Chief Justice Burger, used to complain about the low quality of counsel. I used to have just the opposite reaction. I used to be disappointed that so many of the best minds in the country were being devoted to this enterprise…. I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.
C-SPAN’s “Supreme Court Week” also features numerous interviews with Supreme Court historians, journalists, attorneys and other legal analysts about the Court.
(C-SPAN)
I had the chance back in March to sit in the Supreme Court’s courtroom during oral arguments, during a visit with the Court’s Public Information staff. Being in that room, observing and listening to the justices, is something I’ll never forget. The sense of history in that majestic courtroom is overwhelming.
Hats off to C-SPAN for taking the time to communicate the Supreme Court’s significance through this programming. I should point out that they are supporting it through several social media platforms as well, including on Twitter at @cspan and their YouTube channel. (And, as a video editor, I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the production on Politico).
Here are some excerpts from C-SPAN’s interviews with the justices:
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Rule of law |
