C-SPAN announced Monday that Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has approved its request for same-day release of the audio of Supreme Court oral arguments set for Dec. 5 in Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States. The cases, testing the habeas corpus rights of Guantanamo detainees, were deemed of sufficient public interest to warrant same-day release, rather than the traditional schedule of releasing oral argument recordings to the National Archives at the end of each Court term.
This exception from usual practice has been allowed once or twice a term, more or less, since 2000 in response to media requests for access to the audio, which makes broadcast coverage of oral arguments more complete.
