Justice Roberts Also Helped Colleagues On Playboy TV Case

As was the case with his help in the Romer appeal, Roberts helped his colleagues in moot-court role-play of what they could expect at the Supreme Court.

Confirm Them says this doesn't necessarily indicate any ideological position on the issue being litigated, so much as it indicates "just not being a total prick to your coworkers."

Ummm, that's my language.

BTW, Justice Thomas sided with Playboy while Breyer was against Playboy. Justice Souter recused himself for an unspecified "conflict of interest."

Uhhh, again, not really, and a cheap shot besides.

Playboy won the case. It concerned whether or not Playboy TV had to go dark when children might be watching, as mere scrambling might allow audio or video signals to occasionally be comprehensible. (Apparently it's called "signal bleed," and, as a kid, I was awfully thankful for signal bleed.) It was ruled that Playboy didn't have to go dark for those hours, as that was too restrictive of First Amendment rights to achieve the government's purpose (i.e., keeping 11 year old boys from jacking off to briefly glimpsed shots of Jeanna Fine's rack).

I think Thomas was right. He's not ideologically doctinaire; he just happens to believe in the actual, written (as opposed to "living" or "just made up on the fly") Constitution. That's why he's always a close tie with Scalia as my favorite justice.

Thanks again to the Blogometer.

posted by Ace at 02:23 PM

| Access Comments