Supreme Court Justices Discuss Twitter
from the twitting dept
It does't look like we'll be seeing much Tweeting-from-the-bench on the Supreme Court any time soon, but the Hillicon Valley blog highlights an amusing moment at a recent House Judiciary subcommittee meeting, attended by two Supreme Court Justices -- Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer in which they're asked if they plan on using Twitter any time soon. Scalia says he doesn't even know anything about it -- and notes that his wife refers to him as "Mr. Clueless." Reassuring to know that of a Supreme Court Justice. Breyer, however, seems to indicate a realization that Twitter, as a communication platform, really could be quite powerful.Subcommittee Chair Steve Cohen: Have either of y'all ever consider tweeting or twitting?You can watch the exchange below:
Justice Scalia: I don't even know what it is. To tell you the truth, I have heard it talked about. But, you know, my wife calls me Mr. Clueless -- I don't know about tweeting.
Justice Breyer: Well, I have no personal experience with that. I don't even know how it works. But, remember when we had that disturbance in Iran? My son said, 'Go look at this.' And oh, my goodness. I mean, there were some Twitters, I called them, there were people there with photographs as it went on. And I sat there for two hours absolutely hypnotized. And I thought, 'My goodness, this is now, for better or for worse, I think maybe for many respects for better, in that instance certainly, it's not the same world. It's instant and people react instantly... and there we are. It's quite a difference there and it's not something that's going to go away.
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Glad your wife thinks you're infallible.
While it's certainly tempting to make fun of a couple Supreme Court justices for not being intimately familiar with Twitter, I am sure that there are many things of equally great importance that they are intimately familiar with, which I am not.
As a technologist, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the latest technology fads like Twitter and Facebook are the most important things in the world, and that something like the Commerce Clause's effect on treaty negotiations is absolutely useless.
I am sure, however, that if I were in the hotseat, and somebody asked me about the Commerce Clause (or the latest development in genetics, or Justin Bieber, for that matter), I would appear equally foolish to the devotees of these things.
Aw fuck it, why be reasonable when you can have so much fun piling on. JUDGES ARE DUMB AND MOSTLY USELESS AMIRITE?
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Forgive me for potentially not being clear... I wasn't making fun of them. I actually found the whole thing to be entertaining and slightly endearing, which is why I brought it up. It wasn't at all an attempt to mock them. Apologies if that's what you thought I meant.
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In genetics the big things now are epigenomics and the protien folding problem, the commerce clause allows the federal government to regulate trade between states and nations, Justin who???? I could google or wikipedia him but I get what you are saying, out side the narrow specialties we all focus on, we are all clueless for the most part.
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I think you've missed the point. It's not that someone didn't know a narrowly defined fact in some specialty field other than their own. It's that he didn't know what Twitter was in spite of the fact that it has been so overhyped it has been discussed in almost every form of media imaginable. You'd have to practically be living under a rock not to know what Twitter is by now.
You would expect that any judge, and especially a supreme court judge, would be a relatively well rounded person. Not living in some ivory tower secluded from the unwashed masses and their petty interests. No, they don't have to know every pop culture reference, but it just shows how out of touch someone is in general if they don't know what something is when that something is as ubiquitous as Twitter.
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my theory is that old people drive the way they do because they just don't care about living anymore.
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Who said anything about using Twitter? The point is that he didn't even know what Twitter was, not that he didn't use it himself. Technology isn't just for techies any more. Judges are often are called upon to make judgements that relate to technology. They should have a basic understanding of modern technology and you don't have to actually use some technology in order to have this understanding of it.
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Twitter
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Justices
Things like bloggers being considered journalists, privacy rights of internet users, etc.
If you don't understand the technology, how would you make an informed decision on how the constitution would apply to the technology?
In a country who main export is technology and IP, if you don't understand either... you shouldn't be standing in judgement on anything concerning them.
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Decorum much?
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Re: Decorum much?
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Fascinating
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Why not social media?
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