Supreme Court Justices express concern about education, cameras in the Court, and judicial pay

Justices Kennedy and Thomas appeared. Justice Thomas, as he does in oral arguments at the Court, spoke only when directly addressed.

Chairman Serrano (D-NY) opened the hearing by talking about the awkwardness of calling a co-equal branch of government before a committee to ask it to justify its budget request. He also several times joking asked if the Supreme Court could rule whether people born in Puerto Rico were eligible to the presidency (to which Justice Kennedy joking responded that they were certainly eligible to be Supreme Court Justices).

Much of the hearing focused on the Supreme Court building modernization project, which is currently expected to be completed 16 months after the original projected completion date of May 2008. Justice Kennedy, appearing a bit uncomfortable and at one point jokingly saying, “please do I have to talk about this?” discussed the reasons for the overrun and pointed out that the project was still on budget.

Other topics included judicial pay increases (the Justices agreed that it didn’t make sense to pay judges less than a first-year associate), education of young people on American history (Justice Kennedy expressed concern that youth are not taught enough about American history and principles, and “you cannot defend what you cannot know”), and cameras in the courtroom (the Justices agreed they would not help anything and presented risks of personality overtaking issues in coverage).