Supreme Court and Technology

Today's New York Times, in an article by Linda Greenhouse, reports on the Supreme Court's decision yesterday in Scott v. Harris, No. 05-1631. Greenhouse writes that 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." The video is linked to from the Times article. The black-and-white video is hardly compelling viewing (it shows a high-speed chase that ended in the police ramming the driver's car and seriously injuring him), but it does represent a big technological leap for the Court.

A hat tip to my colleague Professor Ralph Stein for pointing out this article to me. Professor Stein wonders whether "this continuing embrace of technology" might be "credited to the [new] Chief Justice?"