Prompt, free access to argument transcripts
The Supreme Court will begin making available, without charge, the transcripts of oral arguments, on the same day that an argument has been held, the Court announced Thursday. This is one of the most important innovations, in terms of public access, by the new Chief Justice, John G. Roberts, Jr. For years, the idea of same-day release of transcripts of every argument has been rejected despite repeated requests from the media and other public entities.
The new service will begin with the first arguments of the new Term. The Term opens on Monday, Oct. 2, but the first arguments are being held on Tuesday, Oct. 3.
Previously, prompt access to argument transcripts could be arranged, for a significant fee, from the reporting service that has long had the contract for supplying the transcripts, Alderson Reporting Service. From time to time, in major cases, the Court also has released the audiotapes of an argument session, and those have been widely broadcast. Entities wishing to have a transcript of those special cases without paying the reporting service made their own transcriptions from the audio recordings.
The free same-day transcripts will now appear on the Court’s web site, www.supremecourtus.gov. Here is a link to the Court’s web site. In recent years, the Court has been displaying the transcripts on its web site, but ordinarily not until about two weeks later.
In order to provide the new service, Alderson will use a court reporter physically present in the Courtroom, employing high-speed technology to transcribe the arguments more quickly, the Court said. Previously, transcripts were made away from the Court from the audiotapes.
On the Court’s website, the transcripts will be found by clicking on “Oral Arguments” on the home page, then clicking on “Argument Transcripts.” They will be listed by case name and date of argument. Transcripts from prior Terms, back to and including the 2000 Term, are on the web site.
Here is the text of Thursday’s announcement by Kathleen L. Arberg, the Court’s public information officer.
I don’t think this is such a hot idea. Timeliness needs to be balanced by accuracy. I can just see people in the blogosphere jumping all over a comment only later to find out that it was a transcribers error. No matter how hi-speed and advanced the technology, nothing is going to be perfect. While maybe two weeks is too long, I would rather wait and get it right than see the legal herds trampling over justice in the name of the latest hot flash.
Comment by Daniel — September 14, 2006 @ 10:07 pm
I think the transcripts can be made the same day with minimal errors. The arguments are only an hour, which is very short for a transcript. Court reporters are used to transcribing 6 hours of deposition or trial transcript on a fast turnaround. In my experience, if I’m asking for an hour hearing to be transcribed, a day would not be a short turnaround at all.
And, I imagine the reporters will have access to/have reviewed the briefs, so they will know the names, cases & other words involved. Most transcription errors come when the court reporter is not familiar with a term & types what he hears.
We’re not talking about realtime transcription, which is subject to many errors. Just look at the closed captioning on a live event on tv.
Comment by David George — September 15, 2006 @ 9:20 am
I think this is a good thing; however, the announcement doesn’t really inspire confidence. It is announced on SCOTUSBLOG, which is fine but if one goes to the Supreme Court’s web site (the place where the transcripts are actually going to be found) you will see that the Oral Arguments link still has the old language up. The old language says:
The Court’s current contract Courtroom reporter, Alderson Reporting Company, provides transcripts of oral arguments that are posted on this Website within 10-15 business days after the close of the argument session. The following transcripts are for the cases argued during October Term 2000 and subsequent Court Terms. These transcripts will be permanently archived on this Website. Persons wishing to obtain transcripts sooner than they are posted here, for a fee, should contact Alderson at (202) 289-2260, or http://www.aldersonreporting.com.
In the What’s New section of the Supreme Court’s web page, there is this language:
Full transcripts of oral arguments 10-15 days after close of the argument session.
I could not find this announcement anywhere on the Supreme Court’s web site. It may be there but it isn’t easy to find. This isn’t a good sign.
One would think that the Public Relations people at the Supreme Court would try and utilize the Supreme Court’s web page to announce this.
Comment by pat — September 15, 2006 @ 11:01 am
Pat, from the home page, click Public Information and then Press Releases.
Comment by Kent Scheidegger — September 15, 2006 @ 2:35 pm
Kent, thanks for the tip. I actually found it buried several pages in the Public Information and then Press Releases (naturally, after I posted). In any event, they really should update the Oral Arguments and What’s New sections, seeing that those are the most logical places to look.
Comment by pat — September 15, 2006 @ 2:59 pm