Live from Portland (and sometimes Bangor), it’s the SJC!

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As CJ Saufley reported in her state of the judiciary report [?http://www.courts.state.me.us/maine_courts/supreme/speeches/2012_soj.html], in April the Court is going to start streaming arguments live on their web site.  There is also some discussion about having those audio files accessible thereafter, at least temporarily.  I hope that turns out to be the case.  In other courts, e.g., the U.S. Supreme Court [http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_audio.aspx] and the First Circuit [http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/files/audio/audiorss.php?], while you can't get live streaming, you can get transcripts or the files are posted for a period thereafter (in the First Circuit, 30 days).  The Supreme Court has audio files posted from the 2010 on its site, and you can get copies from the National Archives back to 1955.

Often, if you can't get to the Court to hear the argument live, you can't get to a computer to hear it stream live, either.  So having the arguments posted, at least temporarily, could be a great help.  Permanent posting of the audio or a transcript (the Supreme Court transcripts go back on their site to 2000) would be best of all.