Mar 16, 2012

Obamacare at Supreme Court: No TV, but same-day audio

By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY Updated 4m ago

The Supreme Court won't televise three days of oral arguments on President Obama's health care law this month, but it will release audiotapes on the same day.

The compromise, announced Friday afternoon, will enable Americans to hear the justices debating the law a couple of hours after each session concludes March 26-28. The audiotapes are sure to be widely available on the Internet, as well as C-SPAN and National Public Radio.

Court-watchers had not expected live TV coverage, but some had held out hope.

The news release from the court cited "the extraordinary public interest" for its decision to release same-day audiotapes, as well as the customary print transcripts. Usually, those tapes are not released until the end of the week.

Anyone looking for the tapes and transcripts can go to the Supreme Court's website, Supreme Court of the United States, most likely at around 2 p.m. each day for the morning sessions and 4 p.m. for Wednesday's afternoon session.

Obamacare at Supreme Court: No TV, but same-day audio