High Court Should Space Out Opinions and Hire 'Clear Writer' to Summarize Them, Chemerinsky Says
Televised oral arguments are one way the U.S. Supreme Court could communicate better with the public, according to University of California at Irvine law dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
But why stop there? Speaking at a symposium on the court and the press at Brigham Young University’s law school, Chemerinsky suggested several ways the court could do a better job of informing the public. The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times summarizes Chemerinsky’s keynote address.
According to The BLT: Chemerinsky offered these suggestions:
• Instead of rejecting cert petitions without comment, the court could explain why it denied review.
• The court should notify the public in advance which opinions it plans to release.
• The court should spread out release of opinions to make it easier for journalists to write accurate stories.
• The court should hire a “clear writer” to summarize opinions in one paragraph.
• Justices should be more concise. Chemerinsky sees a “perfect inverse correlation” between the court’s smaller docket and the justice’s longer opinions.
