4.06.2006
2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions (NYTimes.com)
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 4 — Television cameras are not about to enter the Supreme Court any time soon.
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, left, and Clarence Thomas appeared Tuesday before a House subcommittee hearing in Washington.
That was the unmistakable message that two Supreme Court justices gave Congress at a hearing on Tuesday on the court's budget.
Several members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury, judiciary, and housing and urban development, which handles the judicial branch's annual appropriation, raised the issue of television after Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas had finished discussing the court's $76.4 million budget request.
Last year, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to require the Supreme Court to permit its arguments to be televised unless a majority of the justices voted to bar television on a case-by-case basis. Other proposals include mandating television access, or simply permitting and encouraging it.
Asked for his views on the subject, Justice Kennedy said it raised a "sensitive point" about the constitutional separation of powers.
(More ... 2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions - New York Times) ¶ 07:55
Published: April 5, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 4 — Television cameras are not about to enter the Supreme Court any time soon.
Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, left, and Clarence Thomas appeared Tuesday before a House subcommittee hearing in Washington.
That was the unmistakable message that two Supreme Court justices gave Congress at a hearing on Tuesday on the court's budget.
Several members of the House Appropriations subcommittee on transportation, treasury, judiciary, and housing and urban development, which handles the judicial branch's annual appropriation, raised the issue of television after Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas had finished discussing the court's $76.4 million budget request.
Last year, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to require the Supreme Court to permit its arguments to be televised unless a majority of the justices voted to bar television on a case-by-case basis. Other proposals include mandating television access, or simply permitting and encouraging it.
Asked for his views on the subject, Justice Kennedy said it raised a "sensitive point" about the constitutional separation of powers.
(More ... 2 Justices Indicate Supreme Court Is Unlikely to Televise Sessions - New York Times) ¶ 07:55
