« Ind. Law - Yet more on: Remonstrances decision leads to legislation | Main | Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 9 today (and 11 NFP) »
Monday, April 30, 2007
Courts - Inclusions in court opinions
Last week the 7th Circuit issued an opinion (see ILB entry here from April 26th) that included what appeared to be a completely gratuitous color photo on page 2 of the downed plane after it had come to rest on a city street. I mentioned it at the end of the entry.
Earlier recent 7th Circuit opinions have included satellite photos from Google (see here and here). I have assumed that these are not pieces of evidence and have wondered what the point was.
Today this entry from Howard Bashman of How Appealing notes that;
"The Court's opinion today in Scott v. Harris, No. 05-1631 -- a dispute about the lawfulness of a high-speed police chace captured on video -- appears online at the Supreme Court's web site with this 91.7 MB RealPlayer video file."I have not yet reviewed the opinion to see what the point is here - is this a piece of evidence, or what? The U.S. Supreme Court in the past has strongly made the point that it speaks only through the words in its opinions, and that therefore allowing video access to its oral arguments would be unwarrented. But what is the point of this wave of "inclusions" in federal court opinions, if not to better explain the opinion?
[More questions] Some other questions: What do these audio-visual materials come from. Are the part of the trial record? Were they part of the appellants' briefs? Did the Court secure them on its own -- e.g. log on to Google and locate and download a satellite photo?
For more on this, see this later ILB entry today.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 30, 2007 12:42 PM
Posted to Courts in general