EDITORIAL
Time to open window on the Supreme Court

Several weeks ago, many across the country stopped to listen, transfixed, to a recording of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the University of Michigan law school admissions case. It was one of the rare times in history that the court had released same-day recordings of its proceedings. Citizens who might never sit in on a Supreme Court case were able to hear how law is made at the highest level.

A determined scholar has always been able to get to Supreme Court archives in Maryland and gain access to audio recordings. But the task is far from easy or quick.

Now, an organization at Northwestern University known as the Oyez Project (oyez is an antique term tolled three times before the open of each court session) aims to make this business easier.

This multimedia project already has oral arguments from some 100 important cases online and available in MP3 format for downloading (www.oyez.org). They hope to have the entire record up by 2007.

This is an enormous boon for scholars, lawyers and others interested in the law. The Oyez Project has made the recordings additionally useful by offering accompanying voice-identified transcripts. The official Supreme Court transcript does not identify who is asking the question.

This project should help convince the court it should routinely release same-day transcripts. As the court shifts to digital recording from traditional reel-to-reel audio, the process of releasing recordings should be even easier.

And once that is accomplished, the court can move on to the next logical step and allow live video coverage of these important and historic proceedings.