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Supreme Court to provide audio tape of argumentsSimilar arrangement made for Bush v. Gore arguments
By Bill Mears
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tuesday's Supreme Court case challenging the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy will be something to hear. For only the second time in history, justices are allowing audio of its arguments to be made public the same day. The Court announced last week it would provide audio tape to broadcast media, shortly after the session ends around midday. Media organizations, including CNN, had lobbied the justices to make tapes of the arguments available quickly. Similar arrangements were made in the Bush v. Gore arguments in December 2000, when the recount of Florida ballots was contested. Open court arguments have been recorded and archived since the 1950s, but tapes are normally available months later and not widely available to the public. All federal courts, including the Supreme Court, ban cameras while in session. The affirmative action cases involve two separate lawsuits. One affects the admission policies at the University of Michigan's undergraduate program. The other deals with Michigan's prestigious law school, something that hits close to home for the justices. All nine are graduates of top tier law schools. Both Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated in the 1952 class of Stanford University. Rehnquist was first in his class. Harvard University is the alma mater of Justices Antonin Scalia (1960), Anthony Kennedy (1961), David Souter (1966), and Stephen Breyer (1964). Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Harvard Law as well, but transferred to Columbia in 1958 for her third year, to be closer to her ailing husband. Clarence Thomas was a 1974 graduate of Yale, and the oldest justice, John Paul Stevens, received his law degree from Northwestern in 1947. The nine justices presumably will have the final say in the affirmative action case before the Supreme Court, but that hasn't stopped a staggering number of groups and individuals from weighing in with their opinions. Court clerks have been buried in paper, handling a record number of so called "friend-of-the court" briefs. Several hundred supporting briefs
The Court says several hundred supporting briefs, or memos outlining legal reasoning of facts, were filed by a mid-February deadline. They are not required by the Court. The key principals in the case, including the students who filed the lawsuits and the university, are required to file briefs and form the basis of the arguments in open court session. The Bush administration also filed a brief opposing Michigan's affirmative action policy, which is usually given great weight by the Court. Briefs supporting Michigan outnumbered those opposing by about 3-to-1. One brief alone was signed by about 14,000 students backing the school. Each justice receives a copy of every brief, but it's not clear just how much influence, if any, they carry when deciding the merits of the case. But for many groups, these documents serve as a potentially powerful public relations tool. The American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Human Rights Campaign are among the advocacy groups supporting Michigan. The American Conservative Union, Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the Campaign for a Color-Blind America back the students bringing the lawsuit. Those standing behind the university also have a higher public profile, including dozens of Fortune 500 companies like Reebok, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Shell Oil, and American Airlines. A group of Democratic senators also filed a separate brief, including presidential candidates John Kerry and John Edwards. And in their filing, several prominent former military leaders say affirmative action is good for the armed forces. They include Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, who rose to fame during the first Gulf War, and former Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Hugh Shelton. On the other side, the students have the support of the Wall Street Journal, the state of Florida, a group of law professors, as well as the Bush administration. The cases are Grutter v. Bollinger (case number 02-0241), involving the University of Michigan's law school; and Gratz v. Bollinger (02-0516), involving the undergraduate program.
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