The
oral arguments for the following cases were heard in Court this week.
Elonis
v. United States sparked the most controversy, due to the fact that the Court’s
decision will have to ride the line between reinforcing freedom of speech, or
strengthening censorship, while also addressing the growing problem of threats
and other such bullying in social media.
Outside
of oral arguments, lawyers for couples in Louisiana and Michigan have told the
Court that they are giving up part of their filing rights, a decision that
could move the cases up to private Conference as early as January 9th.
This puts even more pressure on the Supreme Court to take up the same-sex
marriage question directly at some point within its term, since any case
granted as early as January has a good chance of being decided before the term
ends.
On
December 3rd, at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, there
was strong backing for the introduction of cameras at the Supreme Court and
other federal courts. The bill – H.R. 917, the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of
2013 – is the latest in a series of efforts by Congress to introduce cameras
into all federal courts. Proponents argue that the bill would expand public
access to the courts, and build confidence and understanding of and in the
process. On the other hand, the bill’s opponents pointed out that such cameras
could impair a defendant’s right to a fair trial, and threaten the safety of
officials and participants alike. In any case, the Justices themselves are
heavily opposed to televising the Court’s proceedings, and since the bill would
not mandate them to do so, there is little chance that anyone will be
witnessing televised Supreme Court cases any time soon.
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