SCOTUS: Oyez, Oyez

A while back I discovered the Oyez site where they had audio recordings of Supreme Court arguments. Now every once in a while I'll listen to some of the oral arguments on my portable mp3 player.

At the supreme court level, the arguments are often about ideas instead of the minute details of the law. Freedom of speech, right to bear arms, right to privacy, federal vs state power etc. Many of the cases deal with grey areas of the constitution and often they pull in things like English common law, international conventions, even ancient philosophers to aid their arguments and reasoning.

Basic ideas that have so much affect on our lives such as the miranda warnings, time place and manner, judicial review, all these came out of our supreme court.

Every once in a while I'll post little summaries of cases I find interesting.