The Supreme Court posted the oral arguments from today’s hearing of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which will determine whether California’s Proposition 8 is constitutional.
You can read the full written transcript below:
PROP 8 AT SCOTUS
LISTEN: SCOTUS Releases Oral Arguments In Prop 8 Case
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jwrappaport
Whew. Just listened to the whole thing. Verrilli was just dreadful: stuttering, bumbling, and hinting at the states’ rights refrain that even Obama has abandoned. I have no idea how he became Solicitor General.
Cooper was similarly lame, but he didn’t have much material to work with. Olson, on the other hand, was nothing short of a rockstar.
Wilberforce
Man those justices have zero manners, interrupting the speaker constantly.
Freddie27
I would remind jwrappaport that Donal Verrilli was similarly slammed for supposedly dooming Obamacare by his poor oral argument…and then won a slam dunk. He may not have the rhetorical flashiness of Ted Olson, but he gets the job done.
And Wilberforce, they’re supposed to interrupt them constantly. Oral argument is their only opportunity to actually engage with the legal arguments of the plaintiffs and defendants and question them about it. If they wanted to listen to dry legal arguments they’d read the submitted briefs and amici.
jwrappaport
@Freddie27: I would remind you that the outcome of a case has no necessary relationship with the performance of counsel. Verilli bungled the Obamacare case, but carried the day because Roberts was skittish about involving the Court in such a heated political issue. Just read the decision – Roberts upheld it as a tax and didn’t buy a single one of the government’s Commerce Clause arguments.
Verilli just isn’t that strong a speaker and lacks the confidence of an Olson or Paul Clement. He stutters and is easily and frequently flustered. In the words of the great Roman orator and statesman, Marcus Tullius Cicero, “that don’t impress me much – no, no, no, no.”