CourtTube – Now Playing from the Supreme Court

Here’s one of those serendipitous finds from the New York Times from an article on Supreme Court decisions:

The justices took the unusual step — a first for the court — of posting
on the court’s Web site the 15-minute video of the chase, recorded by a
camera mounted on the squad car’s dashboard. A link to the video in the
case, Scott v. Harris, No. 05-1631, is at supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06slipopinion.html.

It’s not YouTube, but it is a 93 megabyte RealPlayer file that is, like a car chase itself, strangely compelling. It’s also fitting to catch this in the same issue as the Times editorial on Law Day, established by President Eisenhower for Americans to honor “national dedication to the principle of government under laws" every May 1. Even if it’s just the feeling of transparency, it’s still a rush to see evidence offered in our Supreme Court to be available online for everyone.

Who knows, maybe next year we’ll see Supreme Court cases decided based on how many votes they get on digg.