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Politico: Supreme Court's lack of cameras upsets lawmaker
Mar 27 2012Politico:
By SEUNG MIN KIM | 3/26/12
Don’t try giving Rep. Gerry Connolly tickets to this week’s Supreme Court oral arguments over the health care law.
The Virginia Democrat is irked that the court ignored the pleas of lawmakers like himself and declined to make the arguments open to cameras. So he's staging his own mini-protest, not even trying to score admission to Washington's equivalent to the NCAA basketball championship.
“I think it’s absurd that something this seismic is limited to 50 or 60 tickets,” Connolly, who was roaming the crowd of protesters in front of the Supreme Court on Monday said. “It is a third branch of government. It is not a mystical priesthood. They have to be accountable just like the other two branches of government.”
The Supreme Court made Monday's proceedings available via audio just over an hour after arguments ended.
The High Court spectacle isn't a complete loss, though, Connolly said. It gives Democrats a chance to talk up the benefits of the health care law, which remain largely unpopular in public polling.
“I think the right has done a good job in framing the issue, unfortunately, in negative terms,” Connolly said. “Right now, we have an opportunity with the Supreme Court deciding to hear the case to frankly, make our case about what’s at stake here.”By SEUNG MIN KIM | 3/26/12
Don’t try giving Rep. Gerry Connolly tickets to this week’s Supreme Court oral arguments over the health care law.
The Virginia Democrat is irked that the court ignored the pleas of lawmakers like himself and declined to make the arguments open to cameras. So he's staging his own mini-protest, not even trying to score admission to Washington's equivalent to the NCAA basketball championship.
“I think it’s absurd that something this seismic is limited to 50 or 60 tickets,” Connolly, who was roaming the crowd of protesters in front of the Supreme Court on Monday said. “It is a third branch of government. It is not a mystical priesthood. They have to be accountable just like the other two branches of government.”
The Supreme Court made Monday's proceedings available via audio just over an hour after arguments ended.
The High Court spectacle isn't a complete loss, though, Connolly said. It gives Democrats a chance to talk up the benefits of the health care law, which remain largely unpopular in public polling.
“I think the right has done a good job in framing the issue, unfortunately, in negative terms,” Connolly said. “Right now, we have an opportunity with the Supreme Court deciding to hear the case to frankly, make our case about what’s at stake here.”