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Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Courts - More on "SCOTUS Weighs Whether To Limit Data Mining"
Updating this ILB entry from first thing this morning, the oral argument took place this morning. How did it go? Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog gives a pretty clear indication in the first paragraph of his argument recap:
No more than a few minutes into the Supreme Court’s argument Tuesday on the new information technology of data-mining, it became very clear that the Justices — perhaps more than a simple majority — see this first test case as one about corporate free speech. That might not turn out to be true in every case of data-mining that comes along, but it would certainly seem so when a legislature blatantly sets out to curb the use of that technology to convey a commercial message, made up of truthful information.Interesting also is this paragraph, noting the use of, if not charts, at least briefs as argument aids by a skilled Supreme Court practitioner:
The more subdued arguments of the state’s lawyer and Kneedler turned out to be in sharp contrast to a high-energy effort to orchestrate the ebb and flow of the argument by Thomas C. Goldstein, arguing for the data-mining companies and the drug manufacturers. Goldstein, ever the conductor, went to some lengths to make sure that the Justices had before them, at key points in his argument, when he intended for them to follow along. For example, at the opening, he said: “You will want to have available to you the red brief….”[More] Here is the NPR follow-up.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 26, 2011 03:38 PM
Posted to Courts in general