Posted by Orin Kerr:
Camping Out for Supreme Court Arguments:
The [1]Supreme Court will be hearing the Grokster case tomorrow, and
it seems to be the hottest ticket of the Supreme Court Term. The hot
ticket means that a number of people likely are planning to [2]brave
the cruddy weather and get in line early on Tuesday morning (or even
camp out Monday night) to try to get one of the first-come,
first-served seats.
Being mentioned on the VC isn't much in the way of consideration,
but I would be very interested to hear reports from people who wait in
line for the Grokster case and either a) make it in to see the
argument or b) get turned away. (I would be happy to anonymize any
reports if you would prefer not to have your name mentioned.) I'll be
particularly curious to hear how early you need to be in line to get a
seat, and also whether the people who waited and made it in thought it
was worth it in the end.
My own take is that it's usually not worth it to camp out for a
high-profile oral argument. The Supreme Court press covers arguments
quite well, and transcripts are released relatively soon after
argument. While you get to soak in the aura of being there at the live
argument, you never quite know if the argument will be particularly
illuminating. Plus, you can soak in that same aura of being at the
Court another day when no high-profile cases are being heard and you
don't need to wait in line. But of course lots of people see it
differently.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/technology/28grokster.html
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/index.html
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