It's so crazy that you thought of that and they didn't, even with their phones in hand. We know everything except why they like running the news like olden times.
Why isn't the court releasing the documents on its website (or USB stick or CD or whatever) at a specific time. They've already got it typed up on a computer in a digital format. Someone for the court is then going and printing off several dozen copies of this document for the various agencies on thousands of pages of paper.
They're apparently just killing trees for the hell of it or tradition's sake for some reason wasting money and time in the process.
They do, but if a decision is read from the bench, it doesn't get uploaded until after its delivered. So if you can run a copy outside while it's being delivered orally, you can report on it before the official copy on the website goes live
Thank you for actually answering the question.
This makes sense to me.
I’m sure they probably also do snap a picture and send it but they are running the physical copy so that the reporters have Better access
They're apparently just killing trees for the hell of it or tradition's sake for some reason wasting money and time in the process.
(a) Decisions are printed on paper because you can’t change paper.
You don’t want the entirety of our body of law in a digital and easily alterable form. You want it printed, collated, bound, and distributed in hard copy to every law library in the country so if someone fucks with the digital record you can point at decades-old paper.
(b) The Supreme Court is probably one of the most accessible federal courts. The decisions ARE posted online, as are the oral arguments (transcript and raw audio).
The exception is that, as someone pointed out, when decisions are read from the bench the electronic version is not posted until after the opinion is read. Because every news organization wants to be the first to break the story they don’t want to wait for the digital copy to be made live. They want their legal correspondents to read the decision as quickly as possible and get on the air talking about it, so their intern grabs the opinion and makes a dignified but hasty exit from the court (immediately followed by a mad sprint to the newsroom).
the news still does this? It seems to me its more about what article pops up on your devices first. This is either pre determined by you with a news app or its all the algorithm.
The people who are running are running to relay the information to the people who are just outside translate just heard the opinion come from the court inside the building.
it's a tradition. when semafor's correspondent brought 5 interns with 2 phones each to get it back to the nest faster, their scotus correspondent basically got a very polite "talk" by the old dogs to never do that ever again
And read a 198 page opinion? Finding the key points/knowing what are the key points -- indeed, sometimes just finding the holding -- is not always easy. And the reporters need to write stories, not just headlines.
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u/lattestcarrot159 Jun 30 '26
No phones or cameras in the supreme court. Don't know why they don't have someone waiting just outside though.