Do non-lawyers out there know about The Oyez Project? It's a geek's dream. They say that they try "to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the [Supreme] Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955." You can download mp3s of the oral arguments heard by the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. Why have I never heard about this before? For the class I'm auditing at NYU, we listen to the oral arguments of various cases. For this Monday, it's NEA v. Finley, which is the case that goes along with my Wojnarowicz research. I just downloaded the audio file so I can listen to it tomorrow.
I've already tried to think of cases I can start including more explicitly in my classes. Sure, I talk about Eisenstadt v. Baird, but now I could have them listen to the oral arguments. I'm sure that would excite them as much as reading the case, but the thought gets me excited. And isn't that a vital step to making anything we do in the classroom work?
That's a great site. Of course, I was a lawyer!
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to search across argument transcripts and play back (as well as see) the results.
ReplyDeleteNels, thanks for pointing out this site. I can think of several ways I might use this in class.
ReplyDelete