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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Supreme Court Super Nerd - New Step: Podcasts!

Lawffice Space readers may recall my previous post detailing how to become a Supreme Court Super Nerd in 3 Easy Steps. It remains a popular entry. Well, consider this a follow-up - perhaps an Advanced Supreme Court Super Nerd step.

Rookie Super Nerds track the Court's opinions as they're released, and that was the gist of my earlier post. The die-hards get in the game well before that, including tracking the oral arguments.  The Supreme Court has been publishing transcripts of oral arguments for awhile now.

But new this term, the Supreme Court is now posting audio podcasts of the oral arguments every Friday (of a week in which they hear arguments). They've already posted an employment law case, Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp. Listen in as Justice Scalia calls the employee-side's interpretation of the word "filed" as used in a statute "absurd." Followed by Justice Kennedy openly mocking the attorney by asking to "go back to the question Justice Scalia 'filed' just earlier."

OK, I'm probably over-dramatizing a little. But, in all seriousness, I don't see good things happening for the employee-side in this case. We'll see though. You can also download the audio of the arguments to listen on the road. I see a lot of people in the gym with headphones on... somehow I'm guessing that I'm the only one listening to Supreme Court oral arguments. You too could be that nerd!

In the future we may delve even deeper into the realms of nerdery with certiorari grants and cert. petitions. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though.

Image from Supreme Court United States Government website.

Posted by Philip Miles, an employment lawyer with McQuaide Blasko in State College, Pennsylvania.

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